Five militants held after four officers killed in Jordan raid
Five militants are in custody after a shootout with Jordanian police left four officers dead and dozens wounded after a raid on an apartment block outside Amman on Saturday. Jordanian government spokeswoman Jumana Ghunaimat said yesterday that a fourth officer had died of wounds sustained during the operation in the town of Salt, about 20 kilometres west of Amman.
The manhunt was sparked by an explosion in the nearby Christian village of Fuheis on Friday that killed one officer of the gendarmerie and wounded six other security personnel. The IED was placed in a spot where police vehicles often pause while patrolling a weeklong music festival that drew thousands of spectators.
As police searched for suspects, they zeroed in on the apartment complex in Salt and engaged in a gun battle with members of the militant cell inside.
The gunmen detonated an explosive device, bringing down half the apartment block, which is situated on the crest of a hill. About 20 security officers and civilians were injured.
There has been no official confirmation of the condition of the wounded, although reports indicated some were in a critical condition.
During excavations of the rubble created by the partial collapse, police recovered the bodies of three other suspected accomplices.
According to Ms Ghunaimat, automatic weapons were also found at the scene.
She did not disclose details of the suspects, although residents of the area said all five were Jordanians who had recently rented an apartment in the complex.
The Hala Akhbar news website linked to Jordan’s military said yesterday that the suspects were Jordanians and that the cell had planned to attack security installations and other sensitive targets.
Areas of the neighbourhood around the building were still sealed by security cordons and there was a heavy police presence on the streets, residents told The National.
The government urged the public not to share details of the raids or information about the suspects on social media until investigations were complete.
Jordanians have largely observed the media blackout with few users sharing names, locations or identifying details of the incident or the suspects on social media or messaging apps.
As of yesterday afternoon, no group or individual had claimed responsibility for either Friday’s attack or Saturday’s violence.
King Abdullah yesterday denounced the “cowardly act of terrorism” and said Jordan would respond with “force and determination to eradicate terrorism and its criminal gangs”.
Chairing a meeting of the National Policies Council at the Husseiniya Palace, King Abdullah expressed his condolences to the families of the officers killed and issued a warning to armed groups that acts of violence would only unite Jordan and increase its resolve to “eradicate terrorism”.
The flag at the Royal Court flew at half-mast yesterday in honour of those killed in the weekend’s violence. Jordanian officials began the demolition of the partially collapsed apartment building, with the government warning residents to stay away from the area as security forces continued a sweep of the neighbourhood.
Friday’s terrorist attack was the first in Jordan since December 2016, when an ISIS sleeper cell seized the Crusader castle in Karak, southern Jordan, using its vantage point on top of the hillside town to gun down police officers.
Terrorist attacks in Jordan are rare, despite the country sharing a 375-kilometre border with Syria and a 175km border with Iraq near areas that at various times were under ISIS control.
Experts saw parallels with this weekend’s violence and the 2016 ISIS attack: confronting security forces with heavy automatic weapons, preparing IEDs and targeting security officials rather than civilians. “It is clear from the tactics that this is the work of a group that shares the ideology of ISIS,” said Hassan Abu Haniya, a Jordanian expert in extremist movements who has covered their evolution over the past two decades.
Experts believe the group targeted Jordan for its role as a base for the coalition targeting ISIS in Iraq and Syria over the past three years.
“We are seeing a new phase of a decentralised ISIS, where individuals and small groups that share the ideology of ISIS are carrying out revenge attacks in its name, perhaps with the co-ordination of ISIS members elsewhere,” Mr Abu Haniya said. “It is working as gangs, lone wolves and sleeper cells that are not directly connected to the central command, which makes it a challenge for security agencies to crack down on them.
“This attack seems to be in line with ISIS’s new strategy”, he said.
“It could be a cell ideologically linked to ISIS but not directly connected to the organisation ... [but with] ISIS restructuring itself to adapt to a new stage that does not require it to seize territory ... we are expecting to see more such attacks across the region and beyond.”
Amer Sabaileh, a political analyst and director of the Middle East Media and Political Studies Institute, a think tank with a branch in Amman, said it was noteworthy that the attacks targeted security forces.
“The explosive device did not target civilians, although many people were attending the festival in Fuheis,” he said. “ISIS is sending a clear message that its enemies are the security forces.
“But this tactic does not prevent it from targeting civilians.”