Rocket hits Jordanian port, injures four

A rocket fired from outside Jordanian territory hit a hotel area in the Red Sea port of Aqaba today and injured four civilians, one seriously, an interior ministry source said.

The rocket landed at 7.45 am (0445 GMT), the source said.

"The Grad rocket landed in a public street near a major five star hotel and caused four injuries, with three persons lightly wounded and the other casualty in serious condition," the source added.

Rockets also struck the Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat, and Israeli police said they suspected a salvo of short-range rockets had been fired from the Egyptian Sinai, an area where Islamist militants have operated in the past.

The Jordanian source, asked where the Aqaba rocket had been launched, said without elaborating: "It came from the west."

At least one rocket struck Aqaba on April 22, causing no casualties. Amman said the rocket had been fired from outside Jordan and Israeli media spoke of the Sinai as a possible launch point.

In 2005, rockets were fired at US warships in Aqaba port but missed their target and killed a Jordanian soldier on land. A group claiming links to al Qaeda said it was behind the attack.

Two years later, a Palestinian suicide bomber infiltrated through the Sinai and killed three people at an Eilat bakery.

Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab states to have full peace accords with Israel. Those ties were frayed by Israel's crackdown in 2000 on a Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.