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AMMAN: Gunmen killed seven people, including a Canadian tourist and police officers, on Sunday in a city in southern Jordan where security forces were hunting down the unidentified attackers. The shootings took place in Karak, a tourist destination known for one of the biggest castles in the region, around 120 kms south of the capital, Amman. Jordan’s general security department said four policemen, a female Canadian tourist and two Jordanian civilians were killed in a series of shootings. Several others were reported wounded.
The first attack took place when a police patrol went to check on a fire that broke out in a house in Karak, the department said.
“As soon as they reached the area, unknown gunmen who were inside the house opened fire on the patrol, wounding a policeman, and then fled by car,” it said in a statement carried by the official Petra news agency.
“Shortly afterwards, gunmen opened fire on another patrol without causing any casualties,” it added. At the same time, gunmen holed up in the castle opened fire on the Karak police station, “wounding several policemen and passersby” who were rushed to hospital, the statement added.
“Police and security forces have surrounded the castle and its vicinity and launched an operation to hunt down the gunmen,” the statement said, adding that the search was still under way. The ministry said “five or six gunmen” were thought to be involved in the shootings.
However, Prime Minister Hani al Malki, who was addressing parliament at the time of the attacks, said that “special forces and policemen are surrounding 10 gunmen holed up inside the Karak citadel”. It was not immediately clear who was behind the shootings but Jordan has been hit by extremist attacks in the past. Jordan is a leading member of the US-led coalition fighting the IS group in neighbouring Iraq and Syria. It has carried out air strikes targeting IS rebels and hosts coalition troops on its territory.
Maaz al Kassasbeh, a Jordanian fighter pilot, was captured by the extremists when his plane went down in Syria in December 2014 and he was later and burned alive in a cage. Karak is Kassasbeh’s hometown. In June, a suicide bombing claimed by IS killed seven border guards near the Syrian frontier. According to sources close to extremists, almost 4,000 Jordanians have joined extremist groups in Iraq and Syria, where an estimated 420 have been killed since 2011. — AFP
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