Many Jordanian bloggers, inside and outside the country, have registered their blogs with Jordan Planet, which aggregates their posts. The main page of the site gives a sense for the shock and anger Jordanians are feeling in the wake of the recent bomb attacks.
Because the attacks took place at 9 at night – and it’s currently 5 in the morning in Amman – many of the reactions posted thus far are from Jordanians living in the US. Linda, blogging from the US, is struck by how familiar the locations affected are to many Jordanians:
So many of my cousins had their weddings and celebrations in those hotels where these terrorist acts took place. My heart goes out to everyone in Jordan, the victims and their families, and the poor family that was celebrating their children’s wedding in the ball room.
Laith, writing from LA, begins a blog post with a photo of Jordanian security forces. The post reads, in part:
We also need to stick together as people and citizens of Jordan and not forget that the threat is always there and that we need to combat this cancer they call terrorism, and exted our help to those who combat it.
The picture attached is of a group of soldiers from the 71st Anti Terrorist Battalion in the Jordanian Special Forces. We need not forget what these men go through every day in order to make Jordan a safe place. A lot of their work happens behind the scene and is very secretive, and thats why i felt the urge to put this picture and pay tribute to the hidden soldiers of our war with terrorism.
“Reega Reega Hareega” in the US is asking anyone with information about who was injured in the blasts to list those names on the comment thread of his blog.
Sabri Hakim, whose photos of Jordan are often featured on Global Voices, took his camera to the Radisson hotel. He reports that he had a tough time with the security forces there, but was able to get some photos of the security cordon around the area.
Yazan Malakha, blogging from Amman, observes that today’s date is written – in Middle Eastern nations, and indeed, much of the world, as 9/11.
Natasha Twal has been following the news stories since very early on, and updating her readers with news from her family. The comments thread on her post are offering thoughts of support. As metalordie writes, “Jordan was strong before this. Is strong. And will be strong after this”
Eman, a Jordanian in Tunisia who blogs as Aquacool, is (justifiably) very, very angry:
The victims are innocent civilians who did nothing wrong in their life to deserve to die this awful way! People whose fault is to get a job and work for a living rather than kill and destroy!
You terrorist shit heads, you bastards, if you’re not happy with your lives and not mature and good enough to convey your messages peacefully to make a positive change, if you can’t live in peace, go ahead and kill yourselves without harming others you cowards, why take the lives of others? BURN IN HELL YOU MORONS!
My friend Haitham Sabbah is coordinating coverage of the events for Global Voices from Bahrain. He’s got a number of photos on his blog, screenshots of television (Al Arabiya?) coverage of the events.
As dawn breaks in Amman and more information becomes available, expect Jordan Planet to filled with blog posts, which Haitham, Isam, Roba and Natasha will be rounding up on Global Voices.
My friend Daoud Kuttab writes about his reactions to the bombings, and the challenge of figuring out how to explain terrorism to your six year old daughter.
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