Tuesday, November 10, 2015: A gunman was shot down on Monday after he opened fire at the Jordan International Police Academy, killing five people and injuring as many. The Jordan Security Forces shot down the man shortly after he started the incident. Two of the deceased were American government contractors.
The gunman has been identified as a Captain in the National Police of Jordan, who was recently transferred to the Jordan police academy. Police officials have not disclosed his identity to the public, but some sources in Jordan have revealed his name to be Anwar Bani Abdu, who worked as a police officer at Jordanian Criminal Investigation Department before being transferred to academy. A former member of the Jordanian Parliament identified him as his relative. He was married with two young children.
Jordan’s Information Minister, Mohammed Momani, said that a South African and two Jordanian employees were also killed in the incident.
The incident happens in the wake of surgical and strategic offensives taken in the neighboring Syria and Iraq against the militant bodies. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has occupied most of the territories in Iraq and Syria and has instilled a long wave of terror in the region. On the other hand, Jordan has been touted as a safe haven with relative stability in the country. However, this event has put a serious question mark on this claim by the Jordanian government.
On Monday, Jordan memorialized the tenth anniversary of the bombing of three hotel buildings, and some sources claim that the incident was linked to the retaliation of the anniversary. Al-Qaeda’s Iraq branch claimed responsibility for the attacks as a retaliation to Jordan’s pro-Western policies. 60 people were killed in the bloodshed, and more than 100 were wounded.
The US Department of State spokesman John Kirby said the two deceased Americans worked for DynCorp International, a private military contracting company headquartered in McLean, VA. However, details regarding the two wounded Americans’ employers are still unconfirmed.
When asked about the possibility of more people being targeted, Kirby said: “The farthest I’m comfortable going right now is to say several people were killed. . . . The numbers have changed a little bit throughout the day. . . . It’s going to be a little fluid. . . . Several killed. Two were American.”
The US-funded Jordan International Police Academy has been a training ground for more than 75,000 graduates over the course of 12 years since its inception. More than a thousand American military and police trainers are serving at several air bases and police academies. This particular academy trains police officials who serve in the Syrian, Iraqi, and Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
US President Barack Obama said the US government takes this incident very seriously, and a comprehensive investigation will be pursued. He was talking at a press conference with the visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has signed a peace treaty with the Jordanian government.
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