Jordan mourns victims of bombing

Jordanians are angry a wedding was hit in the bombings

The people of Jordan are holding special services of mourning for the victims of the triple suicide bombings that killed 57 people in Amman.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is visiting the country as it remembers those killed in the hotel bombings.

There have been angry protests against Wednesday's attacks - prompting a rare second statement from al-Qaeda in Iraq, seeking to justify the blasts.

The group seems to have been startled by the furious response, experts say.

A statement attributed to the group was posted on the internet saying the hotels that had been bombed were centres for launching wars on Islam.

An earlier statement purported to come from the group had already claimed the attacks.

Neither statement can be independently authenticated. They appeared on a website generally used to post such announcements.

IDENTIFIED DEAD 33 Jordanians 6 Iraqis 2 Bahrainis 1 Saudi 1 American 1 Syrian-born American 1 Indonesian 2 Chinese Bombings in detail

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Amman says it is unusual for the group to put out additional statements justifying its actions.

Many Jordanians have - or had - some sympathy for the group, but few understand the reason for bombing a wedding, as it did.

At least several hundred Jordanians marched in Amman on Thursday, chanting "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," referring to the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

King Abdullah vowed Jordan was "not afraid" and would not be cowed into changing its policies.

Nearly 100 people, mostly Jordanians, were injured in the three blasts, at the Grand Hyatt, Days Inn and Radisson SAS hotels. The blast at the latter caused carnage at a wedding reception.

Map of the blast locations

Most of the dead are Jordanians but a number of other Arabs, two Chinese, one American and an Indonesian are also known to have died.

Syrian-born Hollywood producer Moustafa Akkad - who was behind the Halloween horror films and the Anthony Quinn epic The Message - died on Friday of wounds sustained in the bombing, his family said.

DNA testing

The producer's death took the number killed to 57. Three bombers also died.

HAVE YOUR SAY I was just a few blocks away from the Radisson SAS hotel where the one of the explosions took place and I heard a huge thundering bang Yazeed, Amman Send us your comments

DNA tests are being used to identify at least 14 bodies, including those of the bombers.

Two bombers seem to have used devices strapped to their bodies while the third used a car bomb.

The statement purportedly from al-Qaeda in Iraq said the hotels were targeted because they had become favourites with "American and Israeli intelligence and other Western European governments".

Jordan has become a base for Westerners who fly in and out of Iraq for work and has long been regarded as a prime target for attack, correspondents say.

Security has been tightened around Amman and Jordan's land borders have been closed.

AMMAN BLASTS

1. Vehicle explodes outside hotel after being stopped at a police checkpoint

2. In the most deadly attack, a bomb destroys a banquet room where a wedding reception was being held. Dozens injured by shrapnel

3. Suicide attacker detonates bomb in hotel bar, just before 2100 local time. Two senior Palestinian officials are among the dead

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