{"id":94282,"date":"2016-12-18T14:45:54","date_gmt":"2016-12-18T19:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/?p=94282"},"modified":"2016-12-18T14:45:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-18T19:45:54","slug":"developing-least-nine-killed-series-attacks-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/developing-least-nine-killed-series-attacks-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"DEVELOPING: At least nine killed in a series of attacks in Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"
AMMAN, Jordan – Four policemen, two Jordanian civilians and one Canadian tourist were killed Sunday when gunmen staged a series of attacks on police patrols and a historic castle in the heart of the southern city of Karak.<\/p>\n
According to Jordanian police, at least 20 others were injured, and security sources confirmed that as many as 14 people, mainly foreign tourists, were being held hostage by the gunmen.<\/p>\n
Local media reports claim that Jordanian special forces had freed the hostages late in the evening.<\/p>\n
During the attacks, as many as 10 gunmen holed themselves up in the Karak Crusader castle, a major tourist attraction and one of the most complete Crusader castles in the world.<\/p>\n
Mosques’ loudspeakers across the city called on residents to flee as security operations intensified. Eyewitnesses reported chaos as thousands fled businesses and homes to the surrounding countryside.<\/p>\n
The injured include a second Canadian tourist and 20 Jordanians, police said.<\/p>\n
The identity and number of the assailants remain unknown, and no group has yet claimed responsibility. A person close to Jordan’s security agencies said authorities believe the assailants were extremists with ties to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Embassy in Amman issued a statement to citizens warning of an “active shooter” in Karak, 80 miles south of the capital, and urged citizens to “avoid that area for the time being.”<\/p>\n
Jordan has long been hailed as an oasis of stability and security in the violence-plagued Middle East, with wars and terrorist havens near its borders with Syria to the north and Iraq to the east.<\/p>\n
However, the image of stability is being eroded. Sunday’s attack marked the fourth deadly targeting of Jordanian security and army personnel this year.<\/p>\n
In March, a cell of Islamist militants linked with the Islamic State engaged in a shootout with police in the northern city of Irbid, leaving one policeman and seven gunmen dead. A gunman killed five General Intelligence Department officers in Baqaa refugee camp, a few miles north of the capital, in June. Later in June, Islamic State militants executed a truck-bombing, killing seven Jordanian soldiers stationed near a makeshift refugee camp along the Jordanian-Syrian border.<\/p>\n
In November, a Jordanian officer opened fire and killed three U.S. military trainers at an air base near Jafr used for training Syrian rebels – although the motives behind the shooting are still unclear.<\/p>\n
While the Islamic State has not announced a branch in Jordan, the group has a force of 1,400 known as the Khalid ibn al-Walid Army a few miles away from the Jordanian-Syrian border near the city of Deraa. Security officials privately say the Islamic State likely has at least a “sleeper cell” in the country.<\/p>\n
Although Jordan is a major ally in the war on the Islamic State, 3,000 Jordanians fight under its banner, experts say, making up one of the largest foreign contingents in the extremist group.<\/p>\n
Jordanian officials have repeatedly expressed their concerns of the threats to the kingdom should these fighters return home.3<\/p>\n
Special To The Washington Post \u00b7 Taylor Luck<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AMMAN, Jordan – Four policemen, two Jordanian civilians and one Canadian tourist were killed Sunday when gunmen staged a series of attacks on police patrols and a historic castle in the heart of the southern city of Karak. According to Jordanian police, at least 20 others were injured, and security sources confirmed that as many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5409,"featured_media":63833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n