AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan says that a terror cell targeted in a deadly weekend raid by security forces were supporters of the Islamic State jihadist group and shared its extremist views.
Saturday’s raid, during which three jihadists were killed and five arrested, revealed that the militants were preparing a series of terrorist attacks in Jordan, Interior Minister Samir Mubaideen says.
A joint unit of special forces, police and army troops raided a house in Salt, a town northwest of Amman, a day after an officer was killed and six were wounded in a bomb blast in a nearby town during a music festival.
Four members of Jordan’s security forces were also killed in the operation.
The suspects “were not part of an organisation but followed its takfiri (Sunni Muslim extremist) ideology and supported Daesh,” Mubaideen tells a news conference, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
All of them were Jordanians, he says.
“The raid also foiled other plots to carry out a series of terrorist operations against security installations and public gatherings,” he says.
Speaking alongside the minister, government spokeswoman Jumana Ghneimat says “a horrific amount of explosives” was found in the jihadists’ hideout.
“The explosives were primed to be used and linked to timers,” she says.
— AFP
Jordan’s Interior Minister Samir Mubaideen (L) speaks during a press conference in the capital Amman on August 13, 2018, alongside Public Security Director Major General Fadel Mohamed al-Hamoud. (AFP Photo/Khalil Mazraawi)
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