The al Qaeda terror group claimed responsibility on Thursday for the three suicide bombings in Jordan that killed at least 57 people.

Two pan-Arab satellite TV channels, the Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, reported the claim but did not give any details.

Earlier, a statement published on the Internet said the group of al Qaeda's front-man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had claimed responsibility for the deadly bombings.

"A group of lions of al Qaeda launched a new raid on some of the Muslims in Amman," said a statement by Zarqawi's al Qaeda Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers.

"After having studied and monitored the objectives, the sites of the hotels were chosen," it said.

The three hotels targeted in Wednesday's attacks had been "turned by the dictator of Jordan into a garden for the enemies of (our) religion, the Jews and the Crusaders," it said.

Jordanian authorities had said the bombers had killed at least 57 people and wounded at least 115.

Also on Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in Beijing that three Chinese nationals were killed and one wounded in the attacks. The four were members of a delegation from China's University of National Defense visiting Amman.

Palestinian officials in Amman also said a senior Palestinian security officer and two other officials were among those killed in the three suspected suicide attacks.

Major General Bashir Nafe, commander of the Palestinian Special Forces, who was on his way back to the Palestinian territories, was killed in the explosion at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Palestinian Embassy diplomat Atta Kheiri said.

He said commercial attache at the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo Jehad Fattouh, brother of Palestinian Parliament Speaker Rawhi Fattouh, and Colonel Abed Alloun, a member of the Palestinian intelligence department, were also among the 57 people killed.

Jordanian authorities had said most of the victims were Jordanians.

Source: Xinhua