Jordan policeman kills US, South African instructors

A Jordanian policeman shot dead two US instructors, a South African and two fellow Jordanians at a police training centre on Monday before being gunned down, officials said.

AMMAN: A Jordanian policeman shot dead two US instructors, a South African and two fellow Jordanians at a police training centre on Monday (Nov 9) before being gunned down, officials said.

Government spokesman Mohammed Momani said the shooter also wounded two American instructors, four Jordanians and a Lebanese in the attack at the Jordanian International Police Training Centre (JIPTC).

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The assailant was shot dead by colleagues at the centre in Al-Muwaqqar, 30 kilometres east of Amman, Momani, who is also information minister, said in statements carried by state news agency Petra. An investigation is now under way, he added.

The three foreign instructors killed were on contract to the Jordanian police, Momani said. Washington said the two Americans killed were employees of the private firm DynCorp contracted by the State Department to train Palestinian forces.

“We can confirm that two US trainers were killed and two wounded in an incident today at the JordanInternational Police Training Center,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said. He warned that the final death toll could rise.

“The training is predominantly arranged for Palestinian security forces, to teach them basic police and security skills. It’s been in place since 2008,” Kirby said. The shooting sparked concern in Washington and was condemned by the US embassy in Amman.

‘Shooter’s family in shock’

“We take this very seriously, and we’ll be working closely with the Jordanians to determine exactly what happened,” US President Barack Obama said at the start of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A source close to the family of the shooter identified him as police captain Anwar Abu Zeid. “He has no ties with any terrorist organisation like Daesh,” the source said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist Islamic State group. “The family is in shock and security forces are questioning them about the incident,” the source, who declined to be named, told AFP.

The English-language Jordan Times quoted a relative as saying the assailant was a 28-year-old father of two from Rimun village in the northern governorate of Jerash. He was known as “a very kind person, who is religious but moderate”, the relative who also declined to be named told the paper.

The American embassy in Amman posted on its website a message for US citizens about the site of the shooting, urging them “to please avoid that area for the time being”.

Amman is a key ally of the United States, which announced in February its intention to increase overall US assistance to Jordan from US$660 million to US$1 billion annually for the 2015-2017 period.

Jordan is a member of the US-led coalition fighting IS, which controls swathes of land in its neighbours Iraq and Syria. Earlier this year, US forces began training a small group of vetted Syrian rebels in Jordan.

Monday’s attack coincided with the 10th anniversary of triple suicide bombings in Amman hotels that cost 60 lives and wounded dozens more.

On Monday, King Abdullah II and his wife Queen Rania attended a memorial for the victims of the Nov 9, 2005 blasts.

King visits the wounded

“I know that this is a difficult day for you,” he told families of the victims, and deplored the “tragedies caused by terrorism” around the world. He later visited those wounded on Monday at an Amman military hospital.

The 2005 bombings, which were claimed by Al-Qaeda, shocked one of the Middle East’s most stable countries.

Earlier this year, Jordan executed an Iraqi woman whose husband was one of the bombers. Sajida al-Rishawi was arrested after the attacks and confessed that she was also wearing an explosives belt but had been unable to detonate it.

She was executed on Feb 4 along with another Iraqi militant on death row in revenge for the killing by IS of fighter pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh. IS captured the pilot last December after his plane came down in Syria and later burned him alive.

The gruesome murder sparked international condemnation and was described by a senior Jordanian official as a “turning point” in the kingdom’s fight against IS.

The centre where Monday’s shooting took place was set up after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It has since trained tens of thousands of Iraqi, Palestinian and Afghani police officers, and earlier this year Jordan announced that former Libyan rebels would also be trained there.