Shootout in Amman leaves attacker dead and three security officers injured

Witness said the man fired gunshots at a security patrol before he was chased

Police patrol a street near the Israeli embassy in Amman on Sunday. A gunman was shot dead after he had opened fire on officers. Reuters

Jordan’s security forces shot and killed a gunman in the capital Amman in an exchange of fire on Sunday morning near the Israeli embassy in the Rabieh neighbourhood, witnesses said, amid rising domestic pressure on the authorities related to the Gaza war.

Government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani said a man with a criminal record used an automatic weapon to commit "terrorist aggression" against "men of General Security".

"The stability of Jordan and its security is a red line," said Mr Al Momani, who has the rank of minister. He said the three wounded security personnel were receiving treatment in hospital.

One witness, who helped the police track the gunman and did not want to be named, said the attacker drove into Rabieh, western Amman, with a car bearing the logo of a food delivery company. The gunman started hooting at one of many security patrols in the area and he was seen with an AK-47 automatic rifle, they said. Reinforcements were called in he was killed two hours later.

"Security men ran after him in one street and gunned him down," the witness told The National, adding that an ambulance took the body to the city's Al Bashir Hospital.

Another witness, who is a teacher living adjacent to the embassy, said she and her family were woken at 2.30am by the sound of the gunfire.

"We went to balcony to see what was going on and the police shouted at us to go inside," she said. Security forces searched the neighbourhood before sound of gunfire echoed in the area again, she added.

"They brought in armoured vehicles and officers into the buildings to see security camera footage," she said.

The police earlier said the man, who has not been identified, "started firing gunshots at the security force, which in turn applied the rules of engagement, which resulted in the killing of the perpetrator”.

Security forces have had to fire tear gas to disperse anti-Israel protests in Rabieh after some demonstrators tried to break through the security cordons around the Israeli embassy. Authorities have limited the scope of protests in the area and prevented any prolonged sit-ins. Demonstrations are also banned in areas near western interests and along the border with Israel.

King Abdullah II and his government have strongly criticised Israel's war conduct in Gaza and repeatedly called for a ceasefire but more than a year of war in the Palestinian enclave has led to frustration with the official policy of honouring Jordan's 1994 peace treaty with Israel, which obliges the two sides to prevent threats to each other's security. The kingdom also has a defence pact with the US, Israel's main ally, on which it depends for financial and military assistance.

Officials say no one has supported the Palestinian cause more than Jordan, highlighting the kingdom's role in preserving Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, through a custodianship that traces its roots to the king's great grandfather.

At least one senior official of Hamas, the Iran-backed militant group now fighting for survival in Gaza, has called on Jordanian tribes to attack Israel. Infiltration attempts into Israel from Jordan have increased this year, although most have failed. Last month, Israeli forces shot dead two members of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood who tried to mount a cross-border raid near the Dead Sea.

Descendants of Palestinian refugees comprise a large proportion of Jordan's 11 million population, made up mainly of the tribes that lived there before it was established as the British Protectorate of Transjordan in 1921. Pro-Palestinian sentiment runs high among the two components of the population.

There has been uninterrupted stability since the ousting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation from Jordan in a civil war in 1970.

A military official said in a statement on Thursday that troops stationed on Jordan's northern border foiled two infiltration attempts in the past 24 hours, killing one infiltrator and arresting six others. The official did not give details of their identity or the specific locations of the incidents.

The kingdom's northern border with Syria is a main passageway for the smuggling of drugs and weapons sourced from Syria and Lebanon, and trafficked to Jordan and other Arab states. Jordanian security forces often clash with smugglers in the area.