Zarqa
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Zarqa (Arabic: الزرقاء ; BGN: Az Zarqāʼ; local pronunciation ez-Zergā or ez-Zer'a) is a city in Jordan located to the northeast of Amman. It has 792,665 inhabitants (2000) with 15.5% of Jordan's population. Zarqa is the capital of Zarqa Governorate (Arabic Muhāfazat az-Zarqā). Its name means "the blue one."
Zarqa is Jordan's industrial center, with 50% of the country's industry located in the city. This is the result of inexpensive real estate and the city's closeness to Amman. People from all over the kingdom have moved there since the 1940's. Additionally, more than 50% of its population have come from the West Bank after the Six Days War. Its climate is desert like. The majority of people work in low income jobs like soldiers, technicians and laborers.
Zarqa achieved international notoriety when, on September 6, 1970, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four passenger aircraft from Pan Am, TWA and Swissair on flights to New York from Brussels, Frankfurt and Zurich; and on September 9, 1970, hijacked a BOAC flight from Bombay to Rome.
The TWA, Swissair and BOAC flights, and their 400 passengers, were diverted to what became known as Dawson's Field in Zarqa. The passengers were released and the aircraft were subsequently blown up by the PFLP on September 12. (See Dawson's Field hijackings.)
In response, King Hussein of Jordan formed a military government on September 16, 1970 and began shelling Palestinian guerrilla positions, eventually expelling the PLO from Jordan in what became known as Black September.
Today, Zarqa is also known as the birthplace and namesake of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, former leader of the Tawhid and Jihad militant group, which, in November 2004, announced it had changed its name to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi was killed near Baquba, Iraq, on June 7, 2006.
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