AMMAN: Jordan said Monday that a “terror cell” targeted in a deadly weekend raid by security forces were supporters of the Daesh and shared its extremist views.
Saturday’s raid, during which three terrorists were killed and five arrested, revealed that the militants were preparing a series of “terrorist” attacks in Jordan, Interior Minister Samir Al-Mubaideen said.
A joint unit of special forces, police and army troops raided a house in Salt, a town northwest of Amman, a day after an officer was killed and six were wounded in a bomb blast in a nearby town during a music festival.
Four members of Jordan’s security forces were also killed in the operation.
The suspects “were not part of an organization but followed its takfiri ideology and supported Daesh,” Al-Mubaideen told a news conference, referring to an extreme interpretation of Islam that considers Muslims with other ways of practicing the religion to be infidels.
He said all of them were Jordanians without previous experience fighting for extremist groups in neighboring Syria and Iraq, where Daesh once controlled large areas.
“The raid also foiled other plots to carry out a series of terrorist operations against security installations and public gatherings,” he said.
Speaking alongside the minister, government spokeswoman Jumana Ghneimat said “a horrific amount of explosives” was found in the extremists’ hideout.
“The explosives were primed to be used and linked to timers,” she said.
The militants were holed up in an apartment in a four-story residential block in Salt. They blew up the apartment as security forces encircled them and exchanged heavy fire.
Medical sources said 10 people were wounded in the raid, including members of the security forces and residents of the building used as a hideout.
The chain of events in Jordan began Friday when assailants detonated a homemade bomb under a police car guarding a music festival in the predominantly Christian town of Fuheis, west of the capital, Amman.
The weekend confrontations highlighted Jordan’s continued vulnerability, despite its security crackdown on suspected militants.
Jordan, a small desert kingdom bordering Syria and Iraq, has been the target of several militant attacks. A shooting rampage in 2016 claimed by Daesh killed 10 people including a Canadian tourist in Karak, known for its Crusader castle.
A close ally of Washington, Jordan has played a key role in the US-led coalition fighting Daesh in Syria and Iraq, using its air force against the militants and allowing coalition forces to use its bases.
However, hundreds of Jordanians have joined extremist groups in neighboring countries in recent years, and some have since returned.
Jordan’s crackdown on extremist ideologies has included imposing prison terms of several years for those who express support for Daesh and other groups on social media.
At the same time, hopelessness and alienation among some of the Kingdom’s young people, driven by high youth unemployment, have provided fertile ground for recruitment by militant groups.
(With AFP and AP)
