Iraqi woman suicide bomber was arrested in Salt, Jordan

The would-be female suicide bomber who failed to detonate her explosives belt in an Amman hotel was arrested in the northeastern city of Salt where she had sought the help of relatives, not in Amman as previously announced. The announcement raises the possibility that the woman was handed over to authorities by her own sister's in-laws, presenting a new twist in the case of Amman's triple hotel bombings. Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, who confessed on television Sunday to planning to blow herself up at the five-star Radisson SAS Nov. 9, fled from the hotel to an apartment that she and the other three Iraqis involved in the attacks had rented in Amman's suburbs, Prime Minister Adnan Badran said.

Badran could not say whether it was her relatives who turned her in. "I am not aware of that yet," he said. "There was good cooperation from the people in that area and security forces." On Tuesday, a senior security official told The Associated Press that it was al-Rishawi's sister's father-in-law who reported her to police. The official, who is involved in the bombing investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to reveal information from the inquiry.

Badran's comments were the first official confirmation that al-Rishawi, 35, had been arrested in Salt, 27 kilometers (17 miles) northeast of Amman.

Another top security official had said Sunday that al-Rishawi was caught that same day with the unused explosives at an apartment in Amman's middle-class Tlaa' Ali district.

The triple attacks against the Radisson SAS, Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels, killed at least 58 people besides the three bombers, Jordan's deadliest ever terror attack.

Al-Rishawi's husband detonated his belt of explosives at a wedding party at the Radisson, killing at least 30 people. The woman, in her televised confession, said that the trigger on her own belt failed. Her sister was married to a Jordanian who lived in Salt, identified as Nidal Arabiyat, who was reported killed in fighting U.S. troops West of Baghdad in February 2004, the security official said. A.M.