Hussein of Jordan Nasser to reclaim the Iraqi throne, but it was recalled after it was inside Iraq. Hussein, worried about a similar coup in Jordan, tightened martial law. American troops landed in both Lebanon and Jordan as a show of support for pro-Western regimes in the region against the Nasserist tide. By October, the situation had calmed, and Western troops were recalled. Hussein went on a vacation to Switzerland on 10 November. As he was flying his own plane over Syria, it was intercepted by two Syrian jets that attempted to attack. Hussein outmaneuvered the Syrians and survived the assassination attempt, landing
Hussein of Jordan assassinated. A 3,000-man Syrian force started moving south towards the Jordanian border in support of what they perceived as a coup attempt, but turned around after the army units showed their loyalty to the King. Two principal accounts emerged regarding the events at Zarqa, with the royalist version holding that the incident was an abortive coup by army chief of staff Ali Abu Nuwar against King Hussein, and the dissident version asserting that it was a staged, American-backed counter-coup by Hussein against the pan-Arabist movement in Jordan. In either case, Abu Nuwar and other senior Arabist officers resigned and were