Queen Rania joins crowd of anti-terrorism protest

30 Apr, 2004

More than 250,000 people, including Queen Rania, held an anti-terrorism protest on Thursday, following Jordan's disclosure it had foiled an attack that could have cost tens of thousands of lives, police said.
The demonstration was organised by trade unions and a number of political parties to condemn the suspected al Qaeda chemical bombing plot that Jordanian authorities announced Monday they had foiled.
"I am standing against terrorism," said Queen Rania.
Police estimated at 250,000 the size of the crowd, which marched from the trade union headquarters to parliament, four kilometres (2.5 miles) away.
They burnt portraits of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian suspected mastermind of the bomb plot, and 10 members of a dismantled terror cell, including four who were killed.
Opposition parties, among them Islamic movements, did not take part in the march. "We were not informed," an Islamic Action Front chief, Hamzeh Mansour, told AFP.
The demonstrators, carrying Jordanian flags, called for the authorities "to strike down traitors with an iron fist".
Jordanian officials said they foiled the plot to carry out chemical attacks on the intelligence department in Amman that could have killed tens of thousands of people.

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