Zarqawi Disowned by his Family

The fallout from al-Qaeda's bungled hotel bombings in Jordan just keeps coming...

Yesterday, 76 members of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi published an open letter to Jordan's King Abdullah II, pledging allegiance to King Abdullah, denouncing Zarqawi's terrorist acts, and disowning Zarqawi "until doomsday". Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, is the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group who admitted responsibility for the horrific (and badly bungled) hotel bombings in Jordan two weeks ago.

The letter from Zarqawi's family was published in a large advertisement in a Jordanian newspaper. According to the Associated Press, the signatories on this announcement included Zarqawi's brother and several of his cousins.

The Russian news agency Pravda published a full English translation of Zarqawi's family's open letter to King Abdullah:

Our Lord, his Hashemite Majesty, King Abdullah II, the son of Hussein, may God protect his throne. A greeting of dignity, esteem and admiration from your family and sons in the al-Khalayleh/Bani Hassan tribe in the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. As we pledge to maintain homage to your throne and to our precious Jordan, to sacrifice the dear and the invaluable to you, we denounce in the clearest terms all the terrorist actions claimed by the so-called Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. We announce, and all the people are our witnesses, that we _ the sons of the al-Khalayleh tribe _ are innocent of him and all that emanates from him, whether action, assertion or decision. Those who dare to carry out such actions in our proud kingdom are not Jordanians and have no link whatsoever to Jordan, didn't drink its water and didn't enjoy its protection, because a Jordanian doesn't stab himself with his own spear and we sever links with him until doomsday.

It just keeps getting better and better...