It remains unclear why a shooter killed five people at a Jordan police training center Monday, a U.S. State Department official said.
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Momani added that the assailant – whose name has yet to be made public – had been killed by his fellow officers in the immediate wake of the attack.
Jordan hosts several hundred US contractors who are part of a military programme to bolster the kingdom’s defences, including the stationing of F-16 fighter jets that use Jordanian airfields to hit Islamic State positions in neighbouring Syria.
Egyptian security forces shot dead a leading Islamist militant suspected of masterminding and carrying out assassinations and bombings as well as attacks on foreigners, the interior ministry revealed yesterday.
Fresh detachments of USA special forces teams deployed to Jordan in 2014 for joint training with Jordanian and Iraqi “counter terror” units, according to “American Covert Operations: A Guide to the Issues”.
Officials have released few details, but government spokesman Mohammed Momani said Tuesday that the attacker, a Jordanian police captain, opened fire in a dining hall. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
He was a very peaceful man. We think that something provoked him to carry out such an attack, Suleiman Saed, a local tribe spokesperson, said.
Translator Awni al-Akrabawi, 44, worked at the training center for the past three years and had close ties with his American colleagues, said a relative, Khairallah al-Akrabawi. A U.S. official said the two Americans were working for the US.
A policeman in Jordan has killed five people – including two Americans, two South Africans and a Jordanian – at a police training centre. He said the family will not accept Anwar Abu Zaid’s body until authorities release more information.
The shooting in the Jordanian capital immediately raised concerns of a possible infiltration of the training program by anti-American militants.
Creach was one of two Americans killed in the attack.
In both cables, King Abdullah condemned the shooting, stressing that the government is investigating the incident, according to a Royal Court statement.
The US Embassy issued a statement after the shooting admonishing U.S. citizens to avoid the area “for the time being”.
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. It is a U.S.-based security company.
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Such cooperation has deepened in recent years, with the upheavals of the Arab Spring uprisings and the rise of Islamic militancy in the region, said Dwairi, a former commander of Jordan’s Engineering Corps.
