A Jordanian security officer was killed and another officer was wounded in a stabbing attack in Amman on Thursday, Jordan's Public Security Directorate (PSD) said, adding that the suspect had been arrested. The attack took place near the Sri Lankan embassy in the capital, the directorate said.
Source: Reuters, Nov 5
The PSD named the officer killed as Corporal Jawad Ali Khalaf Salayta, who was on official duty when an assailant ambushed him at 12:20 p.m. on Madina Munawara Street and stabbed him with a sharp weapon, Jordan's official Petra news agency reported, citing the PSD spokesperson. A security patrol intervened immediately, subduing and arresting the attacker after a struggle. Salayta was taken to hospital, where he died shortly afterwards.
Source: Petra via Fana News, Nov 5
Al Jazeera reported that Salayta was a member of the diplomatic security unit assigned to guard the embassy, and that PSD spokesperson Colonel Amer al-Sartawi said the attacker surprised and stabbed the officer. Security sources told Al Jazeera that the attacker, born in 1994, stabbed the officer in the neck while he was inside a guard booth protecting the embassy in the Sweifieh area. Those details were reported by Al Jazeera's sources and have not been independently confirmed by Awaaz Punjab.
Source: Al Jazeera, Nov 5
The officer in charge of the patrol suffered facial injuries during the confrontation and was also taken to hospital, where his condition was described as stable, Petra reported. Jordan's state-run Al-Mamlaka TV reported that the assailant attempted to seize the weapon of the officer who was killed, and that both the assailant and the second officer sustained injuries before the arrest, Al Jazeera reported.
Source: Petra via Fana News; Al Jazeera, Nov 5
Police call it a planned terrorist attack
Preliminary investigations indicated that the attacker had intended and planned to carry out a “terrorist attack” against public security personnel, the PSD said. The directorate described the killing as a “cowardly terrorist attack”, mourned the fallen corporal and offered condolences to his family and colleagues. Security authorities have begun questioning the suspect, Petra reported, and Jordan's public prosecutor said the State Security Court had opened an investigation into the attack, according to Al Jazeera. No group had claimed responsibility in the reporting available on Thursday, and officials did not name the suspect.
Source: Reuters; Petra via Fana News; Al Jazeera, Nov 5
Second deadly attack in Jordan in under two weeks
The stabbing comes less than two weeks after gunmen opened fire on October 23 during a funeral at a church in Jordan's Karak governorate, killing nine people and wounding 40 in a rare attack on the country's Christian minority, Reuters reported. It was not immediately clear whether the Amman stabbing was related to the church attack, Reuters said. Jordan's King Abdullah said on Monday that “terrorists” would not be allowed to threaten the country's unity and security, after the church attack prompted Jordanian strikes in Syria, according to Reuters.
Source: Reuters, Nov 5
The Karak funeral attack — its rising toll, the arrests and Jordan's response — was covered by Awaaz Punjab as the toll reached nine. Read: Karak church attack toll reaches nine
What happens next: investigators are questioning the arrested suspect and the State Security Court investigation will decide the charges he faces. The Sri Lankan embassy in Amman said the attack took place in its vicinity, the Associated Press reported, via Al Jazeera. Jordan has long been regarded as one of the more stable states in a region at war — Thursday's killing, on a busy Amman street in daylight and aimed at the officers guarding a foreign embassy, is the kind of attack the kingdom's security services have usually managed to prevent.