Shortly before the Obama-Netanyahu summit, ISIS hit Americans in Jordan
DEBKAfile Special Report November 9, 2015
After the Islamic State succeeded in downing a Russian airliner that took off from Sharm El-Sheikh on October 31, causing the deaths of all 224 passengers and crew, the terrorist organization Monday, Nov. 9, put a US military target in its crosshairs. A captain in the Jordanian police opened fire in the cafeteria of the Special Operations Training Center outside the Jordanian capital, Amman, where American instructors train Iraqi troops to fight ISIS. Two trainers from the US and one from South Africa were initially reported killed and another six wounded, including two more Americans and four Jordanians. A Jordanian government spokesman said later Monday that the number of fatalities had risen to eight, without specifying how many foreigners. The gunman did not survive. He was variously reported to have committe suicide after the assault or killed by Jordanian troops. The modus operandi resembled the “green on blue” insider attacks committed in Afghanistan by al Qaeda and Taliban “insiders” against American and British troops serving at the same base. Jordan’s Al-Rai newspaper identified the shooter as Anwar Abu Ubayd, but other news outlets said his name was Anwar Abu Zaid. If the downing of the Russian plane rocked the regime of Egyptian President Fattah El-Sisi, there is no doubt that Monday’s attack will shake King Abdullah’s Hashemite throne. The attack, furthermore, demonstrated that ISIS is rapidly approaching Israel’s borders with Syria in the north, Egypt in the south and Jordan in the east. The assault gained particular attention as it was carried out just hours before the summit Monday between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington. They met for the first time after more than a year and after a major row over the Iranian nuclear accord. Both leaders made statements strongly indicating that they had determinedly buried the hatchet and were looking to the future of strong and amicable ties and expanded US support for Israel’s security. A large part of their two-hour conversation was undoubtedly devoted to the threat posed by ISIS, on which they concur. Until now, Jordan had been home to the most important and secure US forward base for the war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria. US air strikes come from bases in Turkey, but more than 10,000 ground troops and special operations forces troops are present in Jordan. The kingdom serves as a training, operations and logistical center for US missions in Iraq and Syria, and for that purpose a command center, the US Central Command Forward-Jordan, was established outside Amman. Until now, ISIS had not managed to infiltrate Jorda for attacks capable of destabilizing Abdullah’s rule. Numerous infiltration and terrorist attacks were thwarted by Jordanian intelligence and security. The Jordanian authorities focused primarily on keeping the jihads out of the refugee camps housing Syrians and Iraqis in flight from war zones, but this came at the expense of efforts to block the threat from reaching inside the Hashemite kingdom and its security facilities. Their first success will no doubt embolden ISIS to keep on pressing its advantage. Immediately following Monday’s shooting, Jordan’s military went into high alert nationwide and along its borders. The US, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and Israel are all boosting their vigilance as the threat from ISIS continues to grow. But no one can reliably predict where the Islamist terrorists strike next.
Jordan Policeman Kills 2 U.S. Instructors, South African
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 09/15/A Jordanian policeman shot dead two U.S. instructors, a South African and a fellow Jordanian at a police academy Monday before being gunned down, officials and the U.S. embassy said. Government spokesman Mohammed Momani said the shooter also wounded two American instructors, four Jordanians and a Lebanese citizen in the attack at the Jordanian International Police Training Center (JIPTC). Momani, who is also information minister, said in statements carried by state news agency Petra that the assailant was gunned down by colleagues at the center in al-Muwaqqar, 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Amman. An investigation is underway to determine the motive for the shooting, he added. The three foreign instructors killed were on contract with Jordanian police, Momani said. Sources close to the family identified the shooter as police captain Anwar Abu Zeid. “He has no ties with any terrorist organization like Daesh,” one source told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist Islamic State group. “The family is in shock and security forces are questioning them about the incident,” said the source, who declined to be named. The English-language Jordan Times quoted a relative of the assailant as saying he was a 28-year-old father of two from the northern village of Rimun. He was known in his hometown as “a very kind person, who is religious but moderate,” the relative who declined to be named told the paper. The U.S. embassy condemned the attack, confirming the casualty toll and the nationality of the victims. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families of all of the victims,” a statement said. “The investigation is on-going and it is premature to speculate on motive at this point,” it added.
Anniversary of hotel bombings
The embassy also posted on its website a message for U.S. citizens reporting a “security incident” at the JIPTC and urging individuals “to please avoid that area for the time being.””Please monitor the news for further developments and maintain security awareness,” the message said. The attack coincides with the 10th anniversary of suicide bombings in Amman hotels that cost 60 lives and wounded dozens more. On Monday, King Abdullah II and his wife Queen Rania attended a memorial for the victims of the November 9, 2005 attacks. “I know that this is a difficult day for you,” the king told families of the victims, and deplored the “tragedies caused by terrorism” around the world. The king later visited the wounded from Monday’s attack who were being treated at a military hospital, Petra said. The 2005 bombings, which were claimed by al-Qaida, had shocked one of the Middle East’s most stable countries and a key U.S. ally. Earlier this year Jordan executed an Iraqi woman whose husband was one of the bombers. Sajida al-Rishawi was arrested after the attacks and confessed that she was also wearing an explosives belt but had been unable to activate it. She was tried and sentenced to death. She was executed on February 4 along with another Iraqi jihadist who had been on death row in revenge for the killing by IS of fighter pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh. IS captured the fighter last December and later burned him alive in a cage. The pilot’s murder sparked international outrage and was described by a senior Jordanian official as a “turning point” in the kingdom’s fight against IS. Jordan is part of a U.S.-led coalition battling IS, which has seized swathes of territory in its neighbors Syria and Iraq. The tiny desert kingdom has trained tens of thousands of Iraqi, Palestinian and Afghani police officers and announced earlier this year plans to train former Libyan rebels at the police academy. The center was set up initially after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to train Iraqis for their country’s post-war police force.