Radisson SAS At the Radisson SAS Hotel (now known as the "Landmark Hotel"), two suicide bombers—husband and wife
Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari and
Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi—entered the Philadelphia Ballroom, where Ashraf Akhras and Nadia Al-Alami were celebrating their wedding with around 900 Jordanian and Palestinian guests. Sajida al-Rishawi was unable to detonate her belt. Her husband Ali al-Shamari, apparently admonished her and told her to get out of the room. As she was leaving, the lights went out in the ballroom, Ali jumped onto a dining-room table and detonated his explosives. Among the 38 people killed in the explosion were the fathers of the bride and groom. In addition, the explosion destroyed the ballroom, blew out the large windows bordering the street, and knocked down ceiling panels. The hotel lobby was also affected: ceiling panels and light fixtures collapsed, furniture was destroyed, and the hotel's glass doors were shattered. Cleanup and rebuilding commenced shortly afterwards. The hotel was actually targeted in the
2000 millennium attack plots nearly six years prior, but the plan was foiled.
Grand Hyatt The second blast happened about 500 yards (457 metres) from the Radisson SAS. It destroyed the hotel's entrance and brought down pillars and ceiling tiles, along with badly damaging the reception and bar areas. After the bomber ordered orange juice in the hotel's coffee shop, he went to another room (possibly to get his explosive belt) and then came back and detonated his bomb. Seven hotel employees were killed in this blast, as were
Syrian-American movie producer
Moustapha Akkad and his daughter, Rima. Akkad, who is best known for producing the
Halloween series of
slasher films, was also the director and producer of
Mohammad, Messenger of God. At the time of his death, he was in the early stages of producing a film about
Saladin, the Muslim leader who expelled the
Crusaders from the Levant. Hyatt began cleanup shortly after the attacks and reopened their hotel on 19 November.
Days Inn At the Days Inn, the bomber entered the restaurant on the hotel's ground floor. He tried to detonate his explosive belt but had trouble; a waiter noticed this and called security. The bomber ran outside the hotel and successfully detonated himself, killing three members of a Chinese military delegation. Property damage at the Days Inn was expected to amount to around $200,000.
Casualties According to one Jordanian official, Maj. Bashir al-Da'aja, early in the investigation, local authorities confirmed a series of coordinated
suicide attacks as the cause of the blasts. Jordanian
Deputy Prime Minister Marwan al-Muasher initially announced that at least 67 people had died and 300 people had been injured. However, the Jordanian government subsequently revised the number of casualties down to at least 59 dead and 115 injured. Among the dead were thirty-six Jordanians, mostly from a Muslim wedding, including the fathers of both the bride and groom. Both the families of the bride and groom were originally from
Silat ad-Dhahr, where 18 of the 57 victims killed were also originally from. The rest were six
Iraqis, five
Palestinians, four
Americans, two
Palestinian citizens of Israel, two
Bahrainis, three
Chinese delegates of the
People's Liberation Army (PLA), one
Saudi, and one
Indonesian citizen. Filmmaker
Moustapha Akkad died with his daughter. The Palestinian fatalities included Major-General Bashir Nafeh, the head of
military intelligence in the
West Bank, Colonel Abed Allun, a high-ranking Preventive Security forces official, Jihad Fatouh, the commercial
attache at the Palestinian Embassy in
Cairo, and Mosab Khorma, a senior Palestinian-American banker and former
Paltel CEO. Both of the Israeli fatalities were
Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. One was Husam Fathi Mahajna, a businessman from
Umm al-Fahm, and the other was an unidentified resident of
East Jerusalem.
Suspects Jordanian police initially stated that there were at least four attackers (the fourth, a female, was later captured), including a couple. A number of Iraqis were among the more than 100 suspects who were arrested in the following days. Police claimed to have found maps that were used in planning the attack. On 12 November, Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister
Marwan Muasher confirmed that the attackers were Iraqi and that there were only three suicide bombers. On 13 November,
King Abdullah announced the arrest of a woman believed to be a fourth would-be suicide bomber, whose explosive belt failed to detonate. The three dead suicide bombers were identified, and their names were announced by Deputy Prime Minister Muasher. They were
Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari (SAS Radisson),
Rawad Jassem Mohammed Abed (Grand Hyatt), and
Safaa Mohammed Ali (Days Inn). The woman in custody was identified as
Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi. She was married to al-Shamari and intended to blow herself up at the Radisson. Muasher also said that she was the sister of a close aide of
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Rishawi was executed in February 2015 in response to the murder of
Jordanian air force pilot
Muath al-Kasasbeh by
ISIL. == Perpetrators ==