Jordan says arrests top Zarqawi aide

AMMAN, May 22 (Reuters) Jordanian security authorities have arrested a senior al-Qaeda operative thought to be behind a spate of kidnappings and killing of foreigners and other acts of violence, the state news agency said today.

A security official who requested anonymity was quoted by the state news agency as saying the details would be broadcast on state television tomorrow.

The official said the man was an aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, but no information was given on his nationality or where he was arrested.

Zarqawi claimed responsibility for triple hotel bombings that killed 60 people in Amman last November but defended them in an Internet audiotape, saying the hotels were home to US and Israeli spies.

He vowed more strikes against Jordan, which supported the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Zarqawi has already been sentenced to death in absentia for involvement in plots to destabilise Jordan.

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