Zarqawi's spiritual mentor arrested again by Jordan

AMMAN, Jordan -- The spiritual mentor of Al Qaeda's reputed leader in Iraq was back in a Jordanian jail , yesterday, days after being released, and his supporters accused Washington of pressuring Jordan to imprison him.

Isam Mohammad Taher al-Barqawi, also known as Sheik Abu-Mohammed al-Maqdisi, is said to have taught radical Islamic ideology to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq now waging a bloody insurgency against coalition forces.

Barqawi's supporters accuse Washington of pressuring Jordan, its longtime ally, to imprison the cleric, despite the fact that he recently questioned the tactics used by Iraq's bloody insurgency.

Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher said Barqawi was arrested ''on charges of making contacts with terrorist groups outside Jordan" since his release a week ago.

''If the charges are proven right, then he will be taken to court," Muasher said.

Hours before his arrest, Barqawi preached restraint to Iraq's insurgents.

'The number of Iraqis killed in suicide operations has become a tragedy for Iraq's people. The mujahedeen must revise their tactics, and I must stress that I have reservations about these actions," he told Al-Jazeera television on Tuesday.

Barqawi said he preferred Zarqawi reduce suicide attacks so that ''no harm would befall Islam," but he did not elaborate.

In previous messages to Zarqawi, including some he wrote from his prison cell and posted on the Internet last October, Barqawi called for minimizing terror attacks to ''spare the blood of fighters and Muslim money" until a more appropriate time to wage all-out war.

Barqawi, a native of the West Bank town of Nablus, and Zarqawi, who hails from the prominent Jordanian Bani Hassan Bedouin tribe, shared a cell-block for four years between 1995 and 1999. Both were freed in an amnesty. Zarqawi later went to Afghanistan, then to Iraq.

Barqawi was later arrested for a terror plot that targeted Israelis and Americans during millennium celebrations in Jordan. He was acquitted by a military court, which later tried him for another terror plot, and found him innocent last October. He remained in jail for eight months without explanation and was released Tuesday.