Police officer shot in Jordan as fuel prices spur anger
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Roshan Amiri
- . December 16, 2022
- . Update: December 16, 2022 10:36 pm
According to authorities and witnesses, a senior police officer was killed during fights with protesters in the southern Jordanian city of Maan during demonstrations against high fuel prices that expanded to numerous other cities throughout the kingdom.
Police said in a statement that the officer was shot in the head late on Thursday while attempting to quell “rioting” by a group of outlaws in the city, which has previously experienced civil unrest over increases in fuel prices and reductions in subsidies.
The police statement said, “We will hit with an iron hand anyone who attempts to attack life and property.”
Earlier, a police source had said that the officer had been shot during skirmishes in the Husseiniya neighbourhood of Maan by unidentified assailants. According to the source, four additional cops were hurt.
A large convoy of armoured vehicles was reportedly observed entering Maan as reinforcements were being rushed to the area where the police officer was slain, according to witnesses.
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Witnesses claimed that youths and police had engaged in physical altercations in a number of the city’s neighbourhoods as well as in the densely populated industrial city of Zarqa, northeast of the capital Amman.
To put an end to protests that started in Zarqa, the second-largest city in Jordan, anti-riot police used tear gas in the Jabal al-Abyad neighbourhood.
Witnesses reported that scores of young people also protested in the capital’s Tafiyla neighbourhood, where police chased protesters yelling anti-government slogans.
Tyres were set ablaze by youths on a major road connecting the city with the Dead Sea, according to eyewitnesses.
Youths and police clashed in a number of Irbid neighbourhoods, the third-largest city in terms of population in the country, in the north of the nation close to the border with Syria.
