Jordan: Cop kills 5, including 2 Americans

A Jordanian army officer shot dead two American military personnel and one South African and wounded six other people on Monday at a U.S.-funded security training facility near Amman, Jordan’s government spokesman said.

Two Americans who were among those killed at a police training facility in Jordan on Monday were monitors with DynCorp, a U.S.-based security and logistics firm that has a contract with the US government.

In the US, President Obama said that the attacker wore a military uniform.

According to the NY Times, the attack took place at a training facility for Iraqi and Palestinian forces outside the kingdom’s capital known as the Jordan global Police Training Center.

The investigation is ongoing and it is premature to speculate on motive at this point.

“We strongly condemn this incident and we deeply appreciate the co-operation and support received from our Jordanian partners”. Four others were injured and are being treated, it said.

Officials believe the shooter could have been a Jordanian police officer who was sacked.

In Abu Zaid’s home village of Rimon, north of Amman, about 200 relatives and neighbors gathered in the family’s diwan, or tribal meeting area.

There has been concern that militants could carry out revenge attacks on Jordanian soil.

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said US officials were “in contact” with Jordanian authorities after the shootings.

The State Department said the training is now mostly to teach Palestinian security forces basic security skills.

Fayez Dwairi, a strategic analyst and former senior military officer, said he could not recall such a deadly shooting attack inside a Jordanian security compound in his 36 years in the military.

The Jordan global Police Training Center was established in October 2003 through an agreement between Jordan and the then-provisional government of Iraq, according to a U.S. State Department document.

“We have full confidence in our security measures, and the investigation will uncover the motivation behind what happened”, Momani told The Associated Press. In an earlier statement, he referred to the shooting as a crime.

Jordanian authorities say the country harbors more than 1.3 million Syrian refugees, 630,000 of whom are registered by the United Nations.