AMMAN, Jordan — Less than a week ago — before suicide bombers killed 57 people at Amman hotels — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was seen by many Jordanians as a homegrown holy warrior battling U.S. troops in occupied Iraq.
After the bombings, claimed by al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, thousands of Jordanians took to the streets throughout the kingdom, shouting: "Burn in hell, al-Zarqawi."
"All Jordanians — even fanatic Muslims — are changing their minds (toward Islamic extremist attacks) because of what they saw happen to innocent people" in Amman, said Ibrahim Hreish, a jeweler in the Jordanian capital.
In Jordan, a close U.S. ally heralded in the West for its moderation, there has been strong support for militant attacks against what Islamist and independent newspapers described as legitimate targets — Israeli soldiers or U.S. troops in Iraq.
Jordan is wedged between Israel and the Palestinian territories to the west and Iraq to its east. More than half the country's 5.4 million citizens are Palestinian or of Palestinian descent, and anger is widespread over Israel's 1948 annexation of Palestinian territories and U.S. support for Israel.
Jordan's 1994 peace treaty with Israel is still roundly denounced by Islamists.
But amid a spiraling of violence in neighboring Iraq and numerous foiled terror plots here in Jordan before Wednesday's strikes, views toward terrorism have started to change.
Most of those killed in the triple hotel bombings were Arabs and Muslims — and the targets included a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding reception.
TV talk shows and newspaper columnists have been focusing on the suicide attacks and whether Muslims should condone them in part or total.
"There has (long) been empathy among Jordanians for insurgent strikes against military targets in Iraq, particularly against U.S. forces," said Mustafa Hamarneh, a researcher who has conducted surveys on domestic attitudes toward suicide bombings.
"I believe we will now begin to see a change in how the country's press reports events in Iraq such as suicide bombings, and in public attitudes," he said.
Jordan's King Abdullah II, a critic of Islamic militancy, said the battle against terrorists like al-Zarqawi was an "ideological struggle between extremist Muslims that have this perverse view of Islam against the rest of us moderate Muslims."
A July survey from the Washington-based Pew Research Center even found support in Jordan for suicide bombings against Americans and their allies in Iraq dropped from 70 percent to 49 percent since March 2004. Last week's bombings are likely to erode al-Zarqawi's support even more, some analysts say.
"It's a public-relations disaster for al-Zarqawi and his militants," said M.J. Gohel, the director of the London-based Asia Pacific Foundation, a think tank that tracks militant groups. "They murdered Muslims in cold blood."
Still, there are many Jordanians who believe that targeting U.S.-led forces in Iraq and or Israeli troops in the Palestinian territories remains legitimate.
"We have to differentiate between terrorism and resistance," said Abdul-Latif Arabiyat, a leading member of the hardline Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest Muslim opposition group. Arabiyat said fighting occupation of Muslim land is sanctioned.
Al-Zarqawi arrived in Iraq before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has spurred a nationwide insurgency marked by suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. But his ultimate goal has been to create an Islamic caliphate in the region by toppling moderate U.S.-allied regimes.
Jordanians were no longer under any illusions of the threat posed by militants like those belonging to al-Qaida in Iraq, said Ahmed Oweidi Abbadi, a former lawmaker.
"People weren't thinking straight (before)," he said, "but they're talking sense after the blasts."