In this Sunday, March 18, 2018 photo, an instructor speaks to members of a Tunisian police commando unit during a drill at the Jordan Gendarmerie Training Academy, in al-Swaqa, about 44 miles (70 km) south of Amman, Jordan. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)
AL-SWAQA, Jordan — A US-funded counterterrorism center has opened in Jordan where law enforcement officers from partner countries in the Middle East and beyond can practice shooting, storming hideouts and responding to bomb threats.
The Jordan Gendarmerie Training Academy is the second such facility in the pro-Western kingdom. It opened on Thursday.
Paul Davies, director for the State Department’s Office of Anti-Terrorism Assistance, said that additional training centers are to be built, including in Senegal and Kenya.
In this Sunday, March 18, 2018 photo, members of a Tunisian police commando unit listen to instructions during a drill at the Jordan Gendarmerie Training Academy, in al-Swaqa, about 44 miles (70 km) south of Amman, Jordan. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)
He said 21 partner nations out of a pool of 56 have trained so far in Jordan’s first facility.
Earlier this week, Tunisian police officers practiced storming rooms in a “shoot house” in the new center.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
They threw sound grenades, setting off loud booms, as visitors watched the drills from a gallery above.
In this March 18, 2018 photo, members of a Tunisian police commando unit storm a room during a drill at the Jordan Gendarmerie Training Academy, in al-Swaqa, about 44 miles (70 km) south of Amman, Jordan. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
