Jordan shooting of police trainers an 'isolated act'

A Jordanian who killed two US instructors, a South African and two fellow countrymen at a police training centre before being gunned down acted alone, the interior minister said Saturday.

Police Captain Anwar Abu Zeid also wounded two American instructors, four Jordanians and a Lebanese in Monday's shooting at the Jordanian International Police Training Centre in Al-Muwaqqar, 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of Amman.

The attack was "an individual, personal and isolated act" which was motivated by "psychological factors due to financial and social pressures", Salama Hammad told a press conference.

Security official Colonel Hussein al-Abadi said Abu Zeid, who had hidden a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a revolver in a bag, first shot at a vehicle carrying three people, killing one.

He then headed to a restaurant reserved for the American instructors and opened fire randomly, hitting his other victims, before being chased down and shot by his colleagues.

Amman is a key ally of the United States, which announced in February its intention to increase overall US assistance to Jordan from $660 million to $1 billion annually for the 2015-2017 period.

The centre where Monday's shooting took place was established after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

It has since trained tens of thousands of Iraqi, Palestinian and Afghani police officers, and earlier this year Jordan announced that former Libyan rebels would also undergo training there.

Jordan is a member of the US-led coalition fighting IS, which controls swathes of land in its neighbours Iraq and Syria.

Monday's attack coincided with the 10th anniversary of triple suicide bombings in Amman hotels that cost 60 lives and wounded dozens.

The 2005 bombings, which were claimed by Al-Qaeda, shocked one of the Middle East's most stable countries.
Source: AFP