‘Terror attack’ kills 5 Jordan intelligence officers

The attack took place in Baqaa camp – the largest camp in Jordan, where a large percentage of the country’s over seven million Palestinian refugees who fled in the aftermath of the creation of Israel in 1948.

Jordanian security stand guard near the intelligence offices at Baqaa refugee camp, where 5 officers were killed by a gunman. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

Baqaa, Jordan // A gunman killed five Jordanian intelligence agents on Monday in a daylight “terrorist attack” on their office in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Jordan is a leading member of the US-led coalition fighting ISIL in Iraq and Syria, and, while such attacks are rare, the kingdom has been the a target for extremists in the past.

Jordan’s security forces were investigating who was responsible for the “terrorist attack”, which took place on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

“The intelligence agency office in the Baqaa camp was the target of a cowardly attack shortly before 7am (4am GMT) that left five agents dead,” government spokesman Mohammed Momani said.

A security source said that preliminary findings suggested the attack was carried out by a lone gunman who opened fire with an automatic weapon before escaping.

The shooting happened as the intelligence team members were starting their shift.

It was unclear whether the gunman was a camp resident or an outsider, the source said, adding that experts were poring over CCTV footage for more clues.

Jordan has seen spillover from the conflicts in Iraq and Syria in the past.

In December 2005, suicide attacks on three Amman hotels claimed by ISIL’s predecessor Al Qaeda in Iraq killed 60 people and wounded dozens.

The Baqaa camp, where Monday’s attack took place, is 20 kilometres from central Amman and is the largest of the kingdom’s 10 official Palestinian refugee camps.

Former member of parliament Mahmud Al Kharabsha said what happened in Baqaa had been “expected”.

“This camp was chosen for an attack in order to sow sedition [between Palestinians and Jordanians] in the country,” said Mr Kharabsha. “What happened was expected. Jordan is in the midst of a cyclone and shares long borders with Syria and Iraq.”

Baqaa — which suffers from chronic poverty and unemployment — houses around 220,000 people, including more than 100,000 of the two million Palestinian refugees who live in Jordan.

It was one of “six emergency camps” set up in 1968 to house Palestinians fleeing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War during which Israel seized the Palestinian territories, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

Baqaa was the home of Mahmud Abdelal, an extremist who blew himself up in Syria in October 2012.

In 2010, three Jordanian extremists were sentenced to prison terms of between three years and life for plotting to kill intelligence officers in the camp.

According to militant sources, almost 4,000 Jordanians have joined extremist groups in Iraq and Syria, where an estimated 420 have been killed since 2011.

Jordan has carried out air strikes against ISIL in Syria since 2014.

One of its pilots was captured by the extremists when his plane went down in Syria in December 2014. In February 2015, ISIL released gruesome footage of Maaz Al Kassasbeh being burned alive in a cage.

His murder prompted Jordan to extend its air strikes against ISIL to Iraq, where it is the only Arab coalition member taking part in the bombing campaign.

Jordan has also opened up the Prince Hassan airbase, north-east of the capital, to other members of the US-led coalition in the air war.

In March, Jordanian authorities announced they had foiled an ISIL plot to carry out attacks in the kingdom in an operation that killed seven militants.

*Agence France-Presse