“As much as pre-emptive measures have been taken, it is impossible to eradicate all risks”, said a senior Jordanian official who requested anonymity.
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The shooting spree in a canteen at the King Abdullah Training Center also killed a South African trainer and two Jordanians translators, reports The Associated Press.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he was treating the attack very seriously and a full investigation is underway.
He says, “Government has informed the next of kin of about the incident and we will make arrangements with the family as well as Jordanian officials on the process that will follow the awful news”. It said Ahraf Ali al-Gharabali, described as a leader of Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate Sinai Province, was killed in a shootout with security forces in the northern Cairo district of al-Marj.
The US Embassy issued a statement after the shooting admonishing U.S. citizens to avoid the area “for the time being”.
US forces in Afghanistan have come under attack on a number of occasions by local police and troops serving alongside them, in what are known as “green-on-blue” assaults. Overall, there are 5,800 more Americans spread throughout the rest of the Middle East, working on various projects for the Defense Department.
Jordan is a member of the US-led coalition fighting IS, which controls swathes of land in its neighbours Iraq and Syria.
Later on Monday, His Majesty King Abdullah visited those who were injured at the King Hussein Medical City, a Royal Court statement said.
Jordanian security sources earlier said that the gunman had killed himself. State Department’s worldwide Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau training Palestinian security forces.
The incident comes on the 10th anniversary of bombing attacks by al-Qaeda in Iraq on three hotels in Amman which killed more than 50 people.
USA bases in Jordan have been instrumental in organizing the USA military-intelligence operations which fomented the violent insurgency against the Syrian government that erupted in 2011.
The attack marks the first deadly strikes against envoys linked to US programs in Jordan since USAID official Lawrence Foley was gunned down in an Amman suburb by al-Qaida sympathizers in 2002.
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But the kingdom’s role in the war against IS has caused disquiet among a few Jordanians anxious about instability at their borders and fearing that a stepped-up role in the campaign might lead to Islamist attacks in their country.
