AMMAN // Gunmen killed four Jordanian policemen in a shoot-out on Tuesday near Karak, two days after an ISIL-claimed attack in the southern city killed 10 people and injured 34.
At least 11 people, mostly security personnel, were wounded in the clashes that were continuing in the village of Al Waysa.
Security forces came under fire after launching a raid to track down suspects following Sunday’s assault in Karak, whose victims included two Jordanian civilians and a Canadian tourist, a security source said.
But another senior security source quoted by the official Petra news agency said the suspects were not linked to the “terrorist group” behind Sunday’s attack.
In Tuesday’s shoot-out, police had surrounded a house where the gunmen were hiding when the suspects opened fire on them, Jordan’s general security department said.
A member of parliament from Karak, Haitham Ziadeen, confirmed that an operation was under way to arrest wanted gunmen.
“A shoot-out erupted after security forces arrived to raid a house in the Qarifla region of Karak province, where the gunmen have sought shelter,” he said.
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READ MORE: Mood sombre in Karak as fuller picture emerges of attack in Jordanian city
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Sunday's shooting spree in Karak, home to one of the region's biggest Crusader castles, also killed seven policemen. Among the thirty-four wounded was Christopher Vatcher, a teacher at Abu Dhabi Grammar School (Canada) and the son of Linda Vatcher, the Canadian tourist killed in the attack. Mr Vatcher sustained a bullet wound to the shoulder and is expected to make a full recovery, a family friend told Canada's CBC News.
Linda Vatcher, 62, a retired teacher from eastern Canada, had travelled to Jordan to spend the holidays with her son, according to the CBC.
Four assailants were killed by security forces after an hours-long siege of the Crusader castle, where the suspects had fled after opening fire on police patrols and a police station in the city.
ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday, saying it was carried out by four “soldiers of the caliphate” who used machine-guns and hand grenades.
The group identified the four dead militants and said the assault targeted Jordanian “apostate” security forces and citizens of the US-led coalition battling the extremists in Syria and Iraq.
It also pledged to carry out further assaults on countries within the coalition.
Jordan is part of the coalition and has carried out air strikes targeting ISIL. It also hosts coalition troops on its territory.
During a visit to the police headquarters in Amman on Tuesday, King Abdullah II denounced Sunday’s shooting spree as a “cowardly terrorist attack”.
But he vowed the assault “will not affect the security and stability of Jordan. It will reinforce its will and the criminals will not be able to undermine” the country.
ISIL has claimed previous attacks on Jordan, including in June when a suicide bomber killed seven border guards near the Syrian border.
According to sources close to militants, almost 4,000 Jordanians have joined jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria, and an estimated 420 have been killed since 2011.
* Agence France-Presse and Reuters, with reporting by Roberta Pennington in Abu Dhabi
