A Jordanian officer shot dead two USA government security contractors, a South African trainer and two Jordanians at a U.S.-funded police training facility near Amman on Monday before being killed in a shootout, Jordanian authorities said.
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The shooting took place at the Jordan worldwide Police Training Center in Amman, where Jordanian and foreign instructors, including Americans, have trained thousands of police officers from the Palestinian territories and other parts of the Arab world in recent years. Momani described the shooter as an “attacker” and said he committed a “crime”, but did not say whether authorities considered the fatal shooting a terror attack.
Sources close to the family identified the shooter as police captain Anwar Abu Zeid.
The shooting came 10 years to the day after a string of bombings killed a total of 60 people at three hotels in Amman. At least five others were wounded in the attack, including two Americans and three Jordanians. They worked for DynCorp. The USA military has a presence inside Jordan, including a detachment of fighter aircraft to strike at ISIS, as well as a unit to assist Jordan with humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugees.
He said the father of two joined the security forces at age 18 and had been working at the training center for several months. It opened in 2003.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he was treating the attack very seriously and a full investigation is underway. King Abdullah believes strongly that the threat from the jihadists must be countered.
The USA government compensates Jordan for the costs to run the center. Jim Dresbach adapted it for Learning English.
His funeral was to take place Wednesday to enable USA relatives to reach Jordan, Khairallah al-Akrabawi said.
A Jordanian spokesman said an investigation into whether “the motive for the shooting was personal or political” has been launched. Those fan boys then carry out attacks, even without any planning by IS.
Jordan has so far been largely unscathed by Isil terrorism.
Earlier in 2015 Jordan executed an Iraqi woman whose husband was one of the bombers.
Jordan has also cracked down on anyone who waves Islamic State flags or expresses support for the group on the Internet.
In February, Islamic State militants wearing Iraqi military uniforms tried to storm an air base used by US military advisers to train Iraqi security forces.
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Details about the incident at a police compound remained murky, with USA officials still working to determine what happened and how many were killed.
