Two Katyushas fired at Eilat from Jordan or Sinai

Two Katyusha rockets were fired at the southern Israeli city of Eilat early Thursday morning. Although the rockets came from the direction of Jordan, the defense establishment is looking into the possibility that the rockets were launched by militants in the Sinai Penninsula.

One of the rockets struck near the Jordanian city of Aqaba, while the other hit the waters off the coast. There was no word of damages or casualties.


he defense establishment and the Jordanian security forces have coordinated an investigation into the matter. No militant group has taken responsibility for the incident yet.

Eilat residents reported hearing the explosion at around 5 A.M. An Israeli supervisor at the Sinai border instructed police to close down the crossing and to warn tourists in the area.

Security forces and police scoured the area, but found no indication of what caused the explosion. Shortly after, the crossing was reopened to traffic.

In August 2005, Al-Qaida operatives in Aqaba fired three Katyusha rockets at a U.S. Sixth Fleet ship. One struck a military facility in the Aqaba port, killing one Jordanian soldier and wounding another; another fell near the Eilat Airport and the city's hospital.

In 2001, Jordan's security forces captured Hezbollah activists from Lebanon who planned to fire missiles at Eilat from Aqaba. A year later, an unknown Beirut-based organization said it was planning to bomb several areas in Israel from Jordan, including Eilat, Beit She'an and Tiberias.

Eilat, at the northern tip of the Red Sea, is a popular resort for Israelis and foreign holiday-makers, and was largely spared the violence faced by other Israeli cities during the intifada and subsquent years. The city was hit in January 2007 by a suicide bomber, leaving three people dead.

About two weeks ago, Israel issued an urgent travel warning its citizens to leave Egypt's Sinai Peninsula due to a kidnapping alert.

The Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a strongly worded statement, citing intelligence information about immediate plans to abduct an Israeli to Gaza, via a smuggling tunnel

[link to www.haaretz.com]