Tag: jordan
Jordanian Officer Kills Two Americans, One South African At Security Training Site

Jordanian Officer Kills Two Americans, One South African At Security Training Site

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) – A Jordanian police officer shot dead two American civilian contractors, a South African contractor and a Jordanian on Monday at a U.S.-funded security training facility near Amman before being killed in a shootout, authorities said.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he was treating the attack at the King Abdullah Training Centre – in which four Jordanians and one Lebanese citizen were wounded – very seriously and a full investigation was under way.

The gunman’s background and motive were not immediately known. But Jordan is a staunch U.S. ally in the Washington-led campaign against Islamic State militants who hold large areas of neighboring Syria and Iraq, a position Jordanian officials say leaves the kingdom vulnerable to jihadist attacks.

“This incident sadly does not come as a surprise as the threat of Islamist terrorism has only increased in the region in the last few years in the aftermath of Syria and Iraq. As much as pre-emptive measures have been taken, it is impossible to eradicate all risks,” said a senior Jordanian official who requested anonymity, citing political sensitivities.

The gunman was a police captain and co-trainer at the King Abdullah Training Centre, a senior Jordanian official told Reuters. The attacker’s identity and details of his background were not immediately released.

The U.S. Embassy in Amman said two American civilian security contractors and a South African contractor were shot to death, and the slain Jordanian was a translator according to the Jordanian government.

“The investigation is ongoing and it is premature to speculate on motive at this point,” an embassy statement said. “We are working closely with the government of Jordan and local security services on a full and comprehensive investigation. We strongly condemn this incident and we deeply appreciate the cooperation and support received from our Jordanian partners.”

A U.S. official said the two Americans were working for the U.S. State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau training Palestinian security forces.

The shooting spree took place on the 10th anniversary of al Qaeda suicide bombings that targeted three Amman luxury hotels and killed 57 people, the worst militant attack in the history of Jordan, a staunch U.S. ally.

EARLIER ATTACK PLOTS THWARTED

Security sources said several earlier militant plots to attack the King Abdullah training center had been foiled.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said the attacker was gunned down by Jordanian security forces inside the training center. He did not commit suicide as security sources had earlier reported.

The training facility was set up on the outskirts of the capital Amman after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq to help rebuild the shattered country’s post-war security forces and to train Palestinian Authority police officers.

Jordan hosts several hundred U.S. contractors who are part of a military program to bolster the kingdom’s defenses, including the stationing of F16 fighter jets that use Jordanian airfields to hit Islamic State positions in neighboring Syria.

But Jordan’s role in the war against Islamic State has raised disquiet among some Jordanians about instability at their borders. They fear that Amman’s enhanced role in the campaign might provoke Islamist bloodshed in their country.

Jordanian authorities have since tightened security around sensitive government districts, increased surveillance of radical Islamists and jailed dozens on suspicion of plotting militant attacks on Israelis, Americans and other Westerners.

King Abdullah believes fervently that ultra hardline jihadists pose an existential threat to the kingdom.

Since the civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, hundreds of Jordanians have joined Sunni Muslim militant groups in the insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad, according to Islamists close to the subject.

But Jordan’s Western-aligned monarchy is torn by conflicting interests over Syria. It has tried to steer a middle course between that of Gulf Arab allies who want Assad ousted at almost any cost and its own concerns – echoed by Washington – that a radical Islamist victory in Syria would install a worse threat.

That ambivalence means that while Jordan has hosted small-scale U.S. training of rebels and allowed modest quantities of Gulf-supplied arms to filter into Syria, it has ensured that its border has not become an easy conduit for guns and combatants.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

General view of King Abdullah bin Al Hussein Training Center where a Jordanian officer went on a shooting spree on Monday in Mwaqar near Amman, Jordan, November 9, 2015. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

U.S. Aims To Shift Israel Focus To Security Ties After Iran Deal

U.S. Aims To Shift Israel Focus To Security Ties After Iran Deal

By Phil Stewart

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said it plainly just before landing in Israel, where officials are fuming over the Iran nuclear deal: “I’m not going to change anybody’s mind in Israel. That’s not the purpose of my trip.”

Carter, making the first visit by a U.S. cabinet official to Israel since last week’s landmark agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program, aims instead to move away from political tensions over the accord to more cool-headed, nuts-and-bolts discussions on deepening security ties.

Increased U.S. military-related support is expected to be on the table. But Israeli and U.S. officials have played down the prospects of any looming announcements.

“Friends can disagree but we have decades of rock-solid cooperation with Israel,” Carter told reporters traveling with him. Carter’s mission will not be an easy one. The United States and Israel fundamentally differ on whether the Iran nuclear deal makes both countries safer. President Barack Obama says it does; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it does not. 

Israel fears that Tehran’s economic gains from a lifting of Western sanctions could boost Iranian-backed guerrillas in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. It could also lead to an arms race with Arab states unfriendly to Israel.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, did little to alleviate those concerns in a fiery speech marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Saturday.

Khamenei said the nuclear deal would not change Iran’s policy in supporting allies in Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon and among the Palestinians.

Obama has stressed that taking the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon off the table increases the security of Israel, the United States and its allies. U.S. officials have also signaled they are not changing a longstanding U.S. defense strategy that is underpinned by the threat of a hostile Iran.

“Neither the deal nor everything else we’re doing to advance our military strategy in the region assumes anything about Iranian behavior,” Carter said.

“There’s nothing in those 100 pages that places any limitations on the United States or what it does to defend … its friends and allies including Israel.”

Carter also cited the U.S. commitment to allies to guard against potential Iranian aggression.

‘DON’T ANTICIPATE A SHIFT’

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran was likely to keep trying to take advantage of fragile states in the Middle East, saying: “I don’t anticipate a shift in their activities.”

Israel has a strong army, is believed to have the region’s only nuclear arsenal, and receives about $3 billion a year in military-related support from the United States. That amount is expected to increase following the Iran deal, and Carter cited a range of security issues to discuss.

“We don’t have any big package or announcement or thing to bring to the Israelis that we’re bargaining over,” the senior U.S. defense official said.

After Israel, Carter will head this week to Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Iran is the predominant Shi’ite Muslim power, hostile not only to Israel but to Washington’s Sunni Muslim-ruled Arab friends, particularly Saudi Arabia.

Allies of Riyadh and Tehran have fought decades of sectarian proxy wars in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former head of the kingdom’s intelligence services, wrote last week that the nuclear deal would allow Iran to “wreak havoc in the region.”

But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir signaled a willingness during a visit last week in Washington to discuss ways to strengthen security ties.

Carter said he aimed to work on advancing commitments made to Gulf leaders in May when Obama hosted them at Camp David.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney and Howard Goller)

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter pauses on the tarmac as he boards his plane en route to Tel Aviv, Israel, in Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, early July 19, 2015. (REUTERS/Carolyn Kaster/Pool)

Chattanooga Shooting Suspect’s Mideast Travel Being Probed

Chattanooga Shooting Suspect’s Mideast Travel Being Probed

By Rich McKay

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) – U.S. authorities are investigating trips that the suspect in the fatal shootings of four Marines in Tennessee took to the Middle East, including at least one to Jordan and a possible visit to Yemen, a source close to the probe said on Friday.

Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, identified as the shooter by the FBI, was shot to death in a rampage on Thursday at two military facilities in Chattanooga.

The suspect, seen driving an open-top Ford Mustang, first went to a joint military recruiting center in a strip mall and sprayed it with gunfire, riddling the glass facade with bullet holes. The gunman then drove off to a Naval Reserve Center about 6 miles (10 km) away, fatally shooting the four Marines before being shot and killed in a firefight with police.

The attack, which comes at a time when U.S. military and law enforcement authorities are increasingly concerned about the threat ‘lone wolves’ pose to domestic targets, also injured three people, including a sailor who was critically wounded.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the suspect had any contact with militants or militant groups, but at this point have no evidence that he did, the source told Reuters.

U.S. law enforcement officials said they were investigating whether he was inspired by Islamic State or a similar group.

Islamic State had threatened to step up violence in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which ends on Friday evening.

The extremist group, also known as ISIS and ISIL, claimed responsibility when a gunman in Tunisia opened fire at a popular tourist hotel and killed 37 people in June. On the same day, there was an attack in France and a suicide bombing in Kuwait.

At a news conference late Thursday, Edward Reinhold, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Knoxville, Tennessee, division, said investigators had found nothing that tied the suspect to an international terrorist organization.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist groups, said that Abdulazeez blogged on Monday that “life is short and bitter” and Muslims should not miss an opportunity to “submit to Allah.” Reuters could not independently verify the blog postings.

The New York Times, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, reported that his father had been under investigation several years ago over possible ties to a foreign terrorist organization. His name was later removed from a terror watch list.

According to a resume believed to have been posted online by Abdulazeez, he attended high school in a Chattanooga suburb and graduated from the University of Tennessee with an engineering degree.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago, Eric Johnson in Seattle, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, David Bailey in Minneapolis, Frank McGurty and Katie Reiley in New York, Emily Stephenson, Julia Edwards, Lindsay Dunsmuir, Doina Chiacu and David Alexander in Washington, Dan Whitcomb and Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Photo: Police tape and a makeshift memorial sit on the lawn in front of an Armed Forces Career Center in this handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy, where earlier in the day a gunman opened fire, injuring one U.S. Marine in Chattanooga, Tennessee, July 16, 2015, (REUTERS/Damon J. Moritz/U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters)

Number Of Syrian Refugees Tops Four Million: UN

Number Of Syrian Refugees Tops Four Million: UN

By Rana Moussaoui with Omar Ibrahim in Minyeh, AFP

Beirut — More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country’s civil war, the United Nations said on Thursday, with many now despairing that they will ever return to their conflict-wracked homeland.

“We don’t think about going back to Syria. What we think about from day-to-day is how to keep our children alive,” said Yassin al-Ali, a Syrian refugee living in northern Lebanon.

Ali, 45, lives with his wife and three children in an informal refugee camp, that has no electricity or drinking water, on agricultural land where many refugees work long hours to eke out a meager salary.

“No one in the world is working seriously to end the conflict so that we can go home,” said Ali, who fled his home in the central Homs province at the onset of the conflict that began in March 2011.

Many of the more than 4 million Syrians now living as refugees in the Middle East and beyond share Ali’s resentment and sense of abandonment.

“Over the years, we’ve realized that the promises made by the United States and others were just empty air,” said Osama al-Raqa, 22, who missed attending university because of the war.

“I dream of leaving to Europe,” he said, in the same camp in the northern district of Minyeh.

“Europeans eat and live in houses. We, on the other hand, are homeless and the whole world treats us like a burden.”

Syria’s conflict began with anti-government protests but spiraled into a war after a regime crackdown.

It has since claimed more than 230,000 lives, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Refugees ‘Sinking Into Poverty’

The UN refugee agency UNHCR said Thursday that the number of Syrian refugees now stands at 4,013,000 people, with another 7.6 million displaced inside the country.

“This is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation,” UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

“It is a population that needs the support of the world but is instead living in dire conditions and sinking deeper into poverty.”

UNHCR said 1 million Syrians had become refugees in just the last 10 months, and the overall number could grow to 4.27 million by the end of the year if the pace continued.

The crisis is the largest handled by UNHCR in a single conflict for nearly 25 years, since the agency assisted some 4.6 million Afghan refugees in 1992.

Most Syrian refugees are sheltering in neighboring countries, including Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, where many live in poverty with few legal protections.

“Worsening conditions are driving growing numbers towards Europe and further afield,” Guterres said, adding that poverty was also driving increased child labor and early marriage among refugees.

UNHCR estimated that $5.5 billion are needed this year to help Syrian refugees and the increasingly overwhelmed communities hosting them.

By June it had received just 24 percent of that amount, forcing cuts to food aid and schooling for refugees.

‘Nothing Has Changed’

In Lebanon, where the government has not allowed the creation of formal refugees camps, host communities are struggling with an influx of more than 1 million Syrians.

That has strained the already-stretched resources of a country with only 4 million citizens, and prompted the government to tighten its borders and crack down on those without official papers.

“The police detained my four sons with seven other people on Sunday because they didn’t have papers,” said Khaled Sheikh, 53, who described the camp in Minyeh as like a prison.

“We don’t have any work, and we can’t leave the camp” for fear of arrest.

Syrians made up a third of the 137,000 people who tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in the first half of 2015, the UNHCR says.

Guterres urged European countries to do more to “fully assume their responsibilities and … extend the mechanisms of solidarity that have been created.”

NGO Oxfam also urged the international community to “restore the lost faith in humanity of an entire generation” by donating more, taking in refugees and working to end the Syrian conflict.

On the ground in Minyeh, refugees said they had no expectation that the international community or the media would do anything to help.

“I don’t want to talk to the media. I’ve been talking to the media for three years and nothing has changed,” one woman said.

Photo: Daily life in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, located 10 kilometers east of Mafraq, Jordan, on June 04, 2014. Dominic Chavez/World Bank via Flickr