Three militants, four security members, killed in shoot out
AMMAN: Security forces pulled the bodies of three suspected militants from the wreckage of a building in a central Jordanian city on Sunday following a shoot-out in which at least four security personnel were also killed, the government said.
In a huge security operation, Jordanian forces laid siege to the building in a residential part of Salt on Saturday night in a search for those responsible for a bomb attack on Friday on a police van.
The police vehicle had been maintaining security near a music festival in the majority Christian town of Fuhais, near the capital Amman and 15 km from Salt.
Four security personnel were killed during the operation after the suspected militants sought sanctuary in the multi-storey building in Salt, a hillside city, the government said.
The side of the building partially collapsed, possibly because of a blast from a suicide bomber inside, a security source said. Security forces had seized automatic weapons in a “continuing operation,” government spokeswoman Jumana Ghunaimat told Reuters.
No group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in Fuhais on the van in which one policeman was killed and six others were injured. Militants from IS and other radical extremist groups have long targeted the US-allied kingdom and dozens of militants are currently serving long prison terms. King Abdullah, a Middle East ally of Western powers against militancy who has also safeguarded Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel, has been among the most vocal leaders in the region in warning of threats posed by radical groups.
Several incidents over the past few years have jolted the Arab kingdom, which has been comparatively unscathed by the uprisings, civil wars and militancy that have swept the Middle East since 2011.
It was not clear how many militants fled into the building which is in a busy residential quarter of the city. But five had now been rounded up in addition to three earlier, security sources said.
Part of the building was blown up by the militants, according to Ghunaimat and a security source said it was believed a suicide bomber had blown himself up causing its partial collapse.
Ghunaimat had earlier said search and rescue operations were being conducted to ensure no civilians were being held hostage in what was left of the building.
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