AMMAN, Apr 22, 2010 (AFP) - A blast hit the outskirts of the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba on Thursday, a minister told AFP, adding the kingdom had no information of reported rocket fire on the nearby Israeli resort of Eilat.
"An explosion occurred on Thursday morning in a refrigeration warehouse in the northern part of the city of Aqaba, causing no casualties and minimal damage," Information Minister Nabil Sharif said.
"An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the explosion," added the minister.
Earlier, a senior Jordanian official said on condition of anonymity that the blast occurred in a plant on the outskirts of Aqaba at about 7:00 am (0400 GMT).
"We know of no rockets in Eilat," he said.
Other Jordanian officials told AFP that contacts had been made with Israeli authorities and that they made no mention of any rockets having fallen onto the Jewish state's territory.
Israel's private Channel 10 television station reported that two Katyusha rockets fell near Eilat, one of them landing in the Red Sea off the port city and the other exploding outside Aqaba.
The channel said it was also possible that the rockets were launched from Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
Neither the Israeli army nor the police would immediately confirm the incident.
The plant contains rubber products and lies on the northern outskirts of Aqaba, which belongs to a special economic zone established by the Jordanian city's authorities in 2001.
Aqaba and Eilat are the neighbouring Red Sea ports of Jordan and Israel, which signed a peace agreement in October 1994 after decades of strained ties and conflict.
The two ports are nestled in the Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow stretch of water bordered on one side by Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the other by Saudi Arabia.
In August 2005, three Katyusha rockets were fired in Aqaba, missing two US warships docked in the port but one hit a warehouse killing a Jordanian soldier while another landed across the border in Israel.
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Copyright AFP 2010.
