Amman: The family of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi asked Islamist lawmakers in Jordan to intervene with the government to bring the slain militant's body back home for burial, a parliamentarian said on Saturday.
The government has so far refused to allow al-Zarqawi to be buried in Jordan because of a November triple suicide bombing his al-Qaida in Iraq organization carried out in Amman, killing 60 people, mainly Jordanian Muslims.
Jordan's largest newspaper, the semi-official Al-Rai, condemned the Islamist lawmakers for even visiting al-Zarqawi's home to pay condolences to his family.
The three lawmakers belong to the Islamic Action Front, the largest opposition group in parliament, with links to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. They visited the home in the city of Zarqa, east of Amman on Friday.
"One of al-Zarqawi's brothers asked us to speak with the government to bring his body home for internment," Ali Abu-Sukkar, one of the legislators, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "What the family is asking for is legitimate."
After the militant's family said it wanted such a burial, a top security official quickly nixed any such notion.
He told the AP the government would not allow "under any circumstances" Iraq's most notorious terrorist to be buried in Jordan and "stain Jordanian soil."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. But he said he was giving the government position on the issue.
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