Amman, Jordan ? Sameeh Khreis has spent years demanding justice and more rights for jailed Islamic extremists. But on Thursday, he joined thousands who took to the streets across Jordan to condemn the militants behind Amman’s triple hotel bombings that killed 59 people.

“This is disgusting. We will never tolerate such terrorism,” Khreis said, marching with 2,000 others in Jordan’s capital.

“Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!” they shouted, denouncing the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi’s group claimed responsibility for the blasts but later, confronted with mounting protests, took the rare step of trying to justify the attacks on Arab civilians.

Honking vehicles, decorated with Jordanian flags and posters of King Abdullah II, cruised Amman’s streets until late in the night. At the bombed Grand Hyatt Hotel, about 50 people, including Jordanian children holding tiny flags, placed candles on a makeshift sand memorial in the driveway.

Officials suspected Iraqi involvement in the attacks. Security forces snared a group of Iraqis for questioning and officials said one of the bombers spoke Iraqi-accented Arabic before he exploded his suicide belt in the Hyatt.

King Abdullah, a strong U.S. ally, vowed in a nationally televised address to “pursue those criminals and those behind them, and we will get to them wherever they are.”

A Jordanian demonstrator waves the Jordanian flag Thursday in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Amman, Jordan, where one of three bombings took place Wednesday night.

Two Americans were killed and four wounded in the bombings Wednesday evening at the Hyatt, the Radisson SAS and the Days Inn, State Department spokesman Noel Clay said. Two of the wounded were hospitalized.

Significantly, the victims also included some two dozen Palestinians with roots in the West Bank. Among them was the West Bank’s intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Bashir Nafeh, a diplomat and a prominent banker. Many Jordanians and Palestinians have supported the Iraqi insurgency, but the hotel bombings could tip Arab sentiment against al-Zarqawi.

‘Arabs killing Arabs’

In the West Bank village of Silet al-Thaher, members of the Akhras family mourned 13 of their relatives killed during a wedding party at the Radisson.

“Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims? For what did they do that?” screamed 35-year-old Najah Akhras, who lost two nieces in the attack. Similar thoughts were heard repeatedly throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, which appears to be expanding its operations outside of Iraq, said the bombings put the United States on notice that the “backyard camp for the Crusader army is now in the range of fire of the holy warriors.”

But later Thursday, in an apparent response to the protests, al-Zarqawi’s group took the rare step of trying “to explain for Muslims part of the reason the holy warriors targeted these dens.”

“Let all know that we have struck only after becoming confident that they are centers for launching war on Islam and supporting the Crusaders’ presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine,” al-Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet statement, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified.

Al-Zarqawi’s group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Jordan, including the 2002 assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley. Jordan, a moderate Arab nation, has fought a long-running battle against Islamic extremists opposed to its 1994 peace deal with Israel.

In addition to the two Americans, the dead included 33 Jordanians, many with families ties to the Palestinian West Bank; six Iraqis; two Bahrainis; at least two Chinese; one Indonesian; and one Saudi. The others had not yet been identified. Officials said the death toll of 59 – which includes the three attackers – could rise because several of the 100 or so wounded victims were seriously hurt.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani condemned the Amman attacks and said they put Jordan on notice against harboring militants.

“Unfortunately, there are still some groups in Jordan supporting terrorist criminals, describing them as the resistance, and they are deceived by their claims,” Talabani said in Rome.