Sinai Border Closes As Rockets Land in Jordan and Israel

JERUSALEM, April 22, 2010 -- Two short range Katyusha rockets landed in the Jordanian Red Sea port city of Aqaba before dawn this morning causing panic just across the border in the Israeli resort town of Eilat.

According to Jordanian security officials one rocket landed in an industrial zone damaging a refrigerated warehouse. A second rocket is believed to have landed in the Red Sea. No injuries were caused by either rocket.

It is still unclear where the missiles were launched from. Israeli military officials earlier claimed the rockets came from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian officials have denied this and an unnamed Jordanian official reports the rockets may have been launched from Jordanian territory. No one has so far claimed responsibility.

The area at the narrow top of the Red Sea is shared by Israel, Jordan and Egypt. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty, popular with scuba divers and tourists seeking winter sun.

In 2005 militants associated with Al Qaeda fired several rockets from the Jordanian side of the border with Israel. It was not clear if the target was the Israeli city of Eilat which is a popular destination for both Israeli and European tourists, or U.S. warships and U.S. marines stationed in the dockyard at the time. One Jordanian was killed.

The area has been tense in recent weeks. Two weeks ago Israeli security officials issued an urgent warning for Israelis to leave the Sinai. They claimed concrete intelligence of a plan by terrorists to kidnap Israelis. Tourists in Sinai have been the target of several previous terrorist attacks most notably against hotels and popular beach resorts.

Following this morning's attack Israeli border authorities closed the border crossing into the Sinai at Taba.

The Egyptian government has long fought a hard core of Islamic radicalism in the area. The sparsely populated desert landscape has also proved popular with smugglers shipping weapons and other contraband to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.