Jordanian officer kills 2 Americans

The officer opened fire at the at the Jordan global Police Training Center in Amman on Monday, killing two Americans, a South African and two Jordanians and wounding others.

Earlier, the Jordanian government spokesman had said the shooter has also wounded two American instructors, four Jordanians and a Lebanese citizen before being shot.

Speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the White House, President Barack Obama said that USA officials are taking the attack “very seriously” and will assist Jordanian officials in launching a full investigation.

A policeman in Jordan has killed five people – including two Americans, two South Africans and a Jordanian – at a police training centre. He graduated from the military school at Mutah University and is married with two kids, a boy and girl. The official said all were civilians, but declined to identify them.

State news agency Petra said on Monday that the three foreign instructors killed were on contract with Jordanian police.

The shootings appeared to mark a return of terrorism-linked bloodshed as Jordan marked the 10th anniversary of deadly hotel bombings.

He was known in his hometown as “a very kind person, who is religious but moderate”, the relative said. Still, it faces risks from a few of the hundreds of Jordanians who have joined Islamist groups, including so-called Islamic State, in Syria, Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of London-based consulting firm Cornerstone Global Associates, said from Dubai.

The officer reportedly went on a shooting spree at the US-funded facility for training Iraqi and Palestinian security forces in Al Muwaqqar on the outskirts of the capital Amman.

It was “premature to speculate on motive at this point” with the investigation proceeding, it said. He was later killed by US special operations forces in Iraq.

That ambivalence means that while Jordan has hosted small-scale USA training of rebels and allowed modest quantities of Gulf-supplied arms to filter into Syria, it has ensured that its border has not become n easy conduit for guns and combatants. Jordan is a key ally of the United States in the Middle East as well as an active part of the so-called US-led coalition against the Daesh Takfiri terror group.

“The training is predominantly arranged for Palestinian security forces to teach them basic security skills”, he added. The incident sparked widespread anger and revulsion in Jordan and led Jordan’s king, Abdullah II, to vow “relentless” strikes against Islamic State.