Mood sombre in Karak as fuller picture emerges of attack in Jordanian city

Four policemen, three members of the gendarmerie, two Jordanian civilians and a female Canadian tourist were killed in Sunday’s attack, which began early in the afternoon and went on late into the night, reports Suha Ma'ayeh from Karak

Jordanian policemen leave the vicinity of Karak Castle on December 19, 2016 after carrying out security operations there following a deadly attack a day before. Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

KARAK, JORDAN // The mood was sombre and security tight in the southern Jordanian city of Karak on Monday following an hours-long attack that killed 10 people a day before.

There was a heavy police presence around the city’s crusader-era castle – its most famous landmark – where on Sunday gunmen hid while shooting at police and passers-by. The castle was cordoned off.

Thirty-four people were injured in Sunday’s attack, which began early in the afternoon and went on late into the night. Four policemen, three members of the gendarmerie, two Jordanian civilians and a female Canadian tourist were killed.

Security forces killed four of the attackers while they were hiding in the castle, the public security department and the gendarmerie said on Sunday night. The attackers were carrying large amounts of automatic weapons and ammunition.

The attack raised anxiety in a country that pitches itself as an oasis of security in a turbulent region.

On Monday, King Abdullah said Jordan would “respond with an iron fist to assaults or any attempts to tamper with the kingdom’s security and safety of its people”, according to the official Petra news agency.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but an investigation has been opened to determine the identity of the gunmen and their affiliations, if any.

The violence began on Sunday when a police patrol responded to reports of an explosion at a four-bed apartment in the town of Al Qatraneh, near Karak.

When the police arrived, they found the apartment’s windows shattered. Three men who were in the apartment claimed that a gas cylinder had exploded, said a witness.

“But it seems they were experimenting with explosives which injured one of the men,” the witness said.

The men then opened fire, shooting killing one of the policemen. They then drove to Karak where they opened fire on a police station before hiding in the city’s castle, from where they shot at police and passers-by.

Interior minister Salameh Hammad said there were several tourists inside the castle at the time, including the Canadian woman who was shot dead by the gunmen. She was identified as 62-year-old Linda Vatcher, a retired elementary schoolteacher. Her son was also injured by the attackers.

It was not clear when the gunmen were joined by the fourth attacker killed at the castle or if any additional attackers had been arrested or were still on the loose.

On Sunday night police found suicide belts, large amounts of explosives and other weapons at the apartment in Al Qatraneh, which was rented by three of the attackers last month.

Residents of the area who had met the three men said they prayed at a nearby mosque and seemed to be very devout.

“One even used to cry during prayers,” said one resident.

He said he heard an explosion and smelled gunpowder at the apartment on Sunday before police arrived on the scene.

The resident said one of the men used to wear a khimar – a long head covering – to disguise himself,

The unfurnished apartment stood mostly empty on Monday, with just a few blankets and blue paper masks scattered on the floor, along with pieces of broken wood from Sunday’s explosion. Black slippers had been left behind in one room, and skimmed milk boxes in another. There were traces of blood on the stairs leading to the apartment in the two-storey building.

In Karak, meanwhile, residents rushed to donate blood on Monday as supplies ran out at the city’s hospitals following the attack.

The attack came just weeks after three US special forces soldiers were shot dead at a military base in the southern city of Al Jafer by a member of the Jordanian security forces. The circumstances of that shooting are being investigated.

Jordan has worked hard to avoid the chaos that has engulfed the region. But the New York-headquartered Soufan Group, which provides strategic security intelligence services to governments and multinational organisations, warned on Monday that Syria’s neighbours were beginning to show increasing signs of stress and instability.

“If countries such as Jordan slide onto a pattern of instability, the consequences – both regionally and globally will continue,” it said.

Sayel Maaytah, 62, who heads a military retiree association facing the crusader castle, said he was confident that Jordan’s security forces could defend the country.

“But the region is boiling and we need to be armed,” he said.