They were also accused of plotting attacks on shops selling alcohol in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and on state investigators seeking to root out and prosecute Islamic militants.Zarqawi's name surfaced most prominently during the US Secretary of State's presentation to the United Nations in February last year laying out the justification for war with Iraq. On 6 April, he received a death sentence in absentia, along with seven other al-Qa'ida militants, for killing Laurence Foley, an American aid worker, in Amman in 2002.His nephew, 19-year-old Omar al-Khalayleh, was one of three men jailed for three years in Jordan on Monday for plotting attacks on US and Jewish tourists. Fight the Americans, fight the rejectionists [Shia] and the agents and hypocrites."The US has offered $10m for information leading to the capture or killing of Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmad Fadheel al-Khalayleh.He was sentenced to death in absentia last year for plotting attacks on Westerners in Jordan. The letter was apparently from Zarqawi to his superiors, possibly Osama bin Laden.Last month, in an audio tape on an Islamist website, he issued a fresh warning to the "snakes of evil".
The tape said: "Sharpen your swords and burn the ground under the invaders' feet. He has claimed responsibility for attacks on US and other Allied forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The US has attributed to Zarqawi a letter on a CD-Rom in which he warned of attacks on the majority Shia population with the aim of provoking a Sunni-Shia civil war to wreck the US plans to pull out of Iraq on 30 June. But the President chose not to take more drastic action authorised by the act, such as economic sanctions that would have barred American companies from doing business in the Syria.. America's most wanted enemy in Iraq emerged from the shadows last night to appear on video apparently cutting off the head of the American businessman Nick Berg.
It also accuses Damascus of failing to prevent foreign insurgents from crossing its border into Iraq. At one point after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, and other officials even suggested Syria was next in line to experience the brunt of US military might.The sanctions follow the Syria Accountability Act, which Mr Bush signed into law in December. There will also be curbs on ties between the US banking system and Syria's national bank.Despite some assistance from Syria in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, the US has long objected strongly to Syria's support for anti-Israeli groups like Hamas and Hizbollah. But they are a signal that for all his problems in Iraq and elsewhere, the President will not relent in the "war against terrorism".The measures also include a ban on flights between Syria and the US, authority for the US Treasury to freeze the assets of Syrian nationals and entities involved in terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and the occupation of Lebanon. With US-Syrian trade running at only $300m (£170m) a year, the sanctions make little practical difference.
The United States has imposed sweeping economic sanctions on Syria, banning almost all exports to the country in response for Syria's alleged pursuit of chemical and biological weapons and its support for terrorism. Signing the executive order imposing the measure last night, President George Bush said that Syria's weapons of mass destruction programmes and its undermining of Washington's Iraq policy made it "extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and the economy of the United States."The sanctions cover all US exports with the exception of food, medicine, commercial jet spare parts and communication equipment that would help keep Damascus in touch with the outside world. "He showed the doctors, he was a worldwide hero." Asked why she thought he had finally taken his own life, she responded: "I think he felt he he had no options. It just kept building up and up." His father, Ron, shook his head when approached by reporters and said he had nothing to add.Janet, however, tried to pay tribute "He was the most generous, loving soul that ever lived He liked music He liked jokes He was a very funny guy He was so generous He gave all he had.". His mother, Janet, came closer than anyone at the funeral last Sunday to blaming Money for what had happened to her child."He was a hero," she whispered to a reporter.
