AMMAN, Jordan — Three "non-Jordanian" suicide bombers belonging to al-Qaida in Iraq carried out Amman's triple hotel attacks that killed at least 57 people, Jordan's deputy premier said Saturday.

Marwan Muasher said the three were males and that no females were among them, replying to claims by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group that four Iraqis — including a husband and wife — carried out the bombings.

"The conclusion has arrived. Al-Qaida is behind the attacks and specifically Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's people," Muasher told a packed press conference in Amman.

"It's three people and there was no woman present," he added, saying they were "non-Jordanians." He didn't elaborate on their nationalities.

Muasher said police are still interrogating 12 suspects believed linked to Wednesday's attacks on the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels, while "many others" currently detained — mostly Jordanians and Iraqis — may soon be released.

Jordanian police rounded up an unspecified number of people Saturday, Muasher added.

There has been intense speculation that Iraqis allied to al-Zarqawi were behind the attacks, Jordan's deadliest ever. Police said Saturday that the two bombers who attacked the Hyatt and Days Inn hotels spoke with Iraqi accents.

Al-Zarqawi, who arrived in northern Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 from Afghanistan, has long held ambitions to emerge as a global Islamist leader and to spread his anti-American campaign to other Mideast countries.

Wednesday's attacks sparked the largest Jordanian manhunt in modern history and angered most of this desert kingdom's 5.4 million people and many of the 400,000 Iraqis living here.

Jordanian police are hunting for eight vehicles, including two with Iraqi license plates, believed linked to the triple attacks.

Police are also investigating the theory that two bombs — one attached to a suicide attacker and another ball-bearing-packed package — exploded during a wedding attended by almost 300 Jordanians and Palestinians at the Radisson.

Many of those killed and maimed in the Radisson attack suffered wounds caused by ball-bearings, indicating that the TNT-packed belt worn by the bomber was not the only explosive device used, a senior police official said on condition of anonymity.

The Days Inn bomber argued with hotel staff shortly before detonating a belt packed with up to 22 pounds of explosives — likely TNT — at the building's entrance, the official said.

The bomber ordered an orange juice and spoke in an Iraqi accent to staff, who asked him to move from an area where he was sitting because it was designated as a "place for families" and not single men, the official said.

"The man became angry and started mumbling words in an Iraqi accent that the waiter believed were insults," the official said.

One of the waiters described the bomber as a "nervous" looking," Days Inn general manager Khaled Abu Ghoush said.

"After the man was told to move, he opened his jacket and tugged at something and the waiter immediately called security," Abu Ghoush said. "The man then fled outside and about two meters (yards) away from the entrance, blew himself up."

Hotel staff said the man knelt to the ground and pulled at the faulty primer cord for his explosives, which finally detonated, killing three members of a Chinese military delegation, the police official added.

Waiters also told police that the morning before the attack, two men entered the hotel and appeared to be staking out the premises before leaving shortly after, the official added.

Police had already revealed that the Hyatt bomber also spoke with people in the hotel's lobby in an Iraqi accent before detonating his explosives.

Al-Zarqawi, who has been sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for terror crimes, is believed to have trained more than 100 Iraqi militants to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq and possibly elsewhere in the Mideast.

"The threat still exists against those (hotels) ... and others and we are meeting nonstop to determine potential targets and implement required protection," Maj. Gen. Mohammad al-Eitan, general director of public security, told state-run TV.