National Post (National Edition)
CANADIAN KILLED IN JORDAN ATTACK
TEN DEAD AFTER GUNMEN OPEN FIRE AT HISTORIC CASTLE
A Canadian tourist was among 10 people killed Sunday and another Canadian was injured when gunmen attacked a castle in Jordan that dates back to the time of the Crusades.
The narrow streets of Karak became a scene of chaos as assailants opened fire at three separate locations, including a police station inside a 12th-century castle that is a popular tourist attraction.
As gunfire rang out and security forces moved in, loudspeakers on mosques across the city broadcast messages urging residents to flee. Shots could still be heard at the scene on Sunday evening, and security forces fired tear gas to flush the gunmen out of the castle.
After Jordanian security officials announced that an unidentified Canadian woman was among the victims, Ottawa expressed sympathy to her family and friends and offered help in finding those responsible.
“The Government of Canada stands ready to assist Jordan in bringing the perpetrators of this heinous attack to justice,” Global Affairs spokesman John Babcock said by email. He said staff at Canada’s embassy in Amman “are actively working with local authorities to gather additional information and provide consular assistance at this difficult time.”
The embassy issued an alert on social media Sunday.
“We advise against all travel to #Karak city until further notice due to security incident, be safe!” it said.
The violence began when gunmen fired on police responding to a report of a house fire. The assailants appear to have primarily targeted police, and the death toll Sunday evening included seven officers as well as two Jordanian civilians. Another 27 people were reported wounded.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. As the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant made gains in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, Jordan had been seen as a relative oasis spared terrorist violence.
But the pro-Western kingdom is a major ally in the fight against ISIL, and Sunday’s attack was the fourth deadly targeting of Jordanian security and army personnel this year.
In March, Islamist militants linked with the Islamic State engaged in a shootout with police in the northern city of Irbid, leaving one policeman and seven gunmen dead. A gunman killed five General Intelligence Department officers in Baqaa refugee camp, a few kilometres north of the capital, in June. Later in June, a truckbombing by ISIL militants killed seven Jordanian soldiers stationed near a makeshift refugee camp along the Jordanian-Syrian border.
If the perpetrators of Sunday’s attack are revealed to have been Islamist militants, it will add to what was already a deadly terror toll for Canadians overseas in 2016.
When Buri Mohamed Hamza was murdered in Somalia by Al-Shabaab extremists in June, he became the 10th Canadian to be killed abroad by terrorists in 2016. That made it the worst year for such deaths since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a terrorism database. Nine other Canadians have died this year in Burkina Faso, the Philippines and Indonesia.
The Karak castle sits atop a rocky ridge on the edge of the city, about 140 kilometres south of Amman. The knights of the First Crusade began construction of the fortress in 1142 and held it until Muslim forces conquered it in 1188.
Omar Bazrawi, operations manager for a Jordanian tour company, said the castle is a popular stop on the King’s Highway that runs south from Amman to Petra. Bazrawi said tourism was already suffering because of the violence in Syria and Iraq.
“I hope it’s not a terrorist attack. That’s all I need to hear,” he said.