Missiles fired at US navy ship in Jordan, Israeli airport
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-19 16:03

Two missiles were fired early Friday from Jordan at a U.S. Navy ship docked in a Jordanian port and at a nearby airport in neighboring Israel, officials said.

No casualties were reported in either attack.

The U.S. Navy said a mortar was fired at an American ship docked in Jordan's port of Aqaba.

Israeli police and witnesses said a Katyusha rocket fired from Jordan fell on the outskirts of the nearby airport of Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat, but did not explode.

US Ashland docks at New Orleans, Louisiana in this May 9, 1992 file photo. [Reuters/file]

Two U.S. Navy ships sailed out of Jordan's port of Aqaba on Friday, soon after the attack, the U.S. Fifth Fleet and witnesses said.

Aqaba and Eilat are about 15 kilometers (9 miles) apart and located on either side the Jordan-Israeli border at the northern end of the Red Sea close to Sinai Peninsula.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz speaking in southern Israel said the attacks were "intended to hit the Israeli side and the Jordanian side as well."

"We still don't know who is behind this act but I'm sure the Jordanians will do all they can to prevent such attacks in the future as in the past," Mofaz said, adding Israeli authorities are in contact with Jordanians over the incidents.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet based in Bahrain confirmed that a mortar was fired from Jordan at one of its ships docked in the seaport of Aqaba. missing the vessel but slamming into a warehouse on a dock.

"At approximately 8:44 a.m. local time a suspected mortar rocket flew over the (amphibious) USS Ashland over the bow and impacted a warehouse on the pier in the vicinity of the Ashland and the USS Kearsarge which were in port," said Lt. Cdr. Charlie Brown of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet,l based in Bahrain.

"The warehouse sustained an approximate 8 foot (2.5 meter) hole in the roof of the building and no sailors or Marines were injured in the attack," Brown told The Associated Press, adding that the missile was filed from land.

The rocket fired into Israel created a small crater in the road, about 15 meters (yards) from the Eilat airport fence, said a local police commander, Avi Azulin. The commander said the rocket was fired from nearby Jordan.

A taxi driver, who passed on the road just as the rocket fell, was lightly injured. However, the rocket did not hit his car, witnesses said.

U.S. frigates, apparently part of routine exercises with the Jordanian army, were seen docked at the mouth of the Red Sea port earlier this week.

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