FURTHER MA'AN VIOLENCE, OTHER INCIDENTS, RATTLE

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 006938

SIPDIS

CENTCOM FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/27/2012
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPAL JO
SUBJECT: FURTHER MA'AN VIOLENCE, OTHER INCIDENTS, RATTLE
JORDANIANS

REF: (A) AMMAN 6823 (B) AMMAN 6535 (C) AMMAN 6650

Classified By: Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm. Reasons 1.5 (b,d).

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MORE VIOLENCE IN MA'AN . . .
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1. (C) The southern city of Ma'an was again the site of a
clash between police and local armed militants on November

24. According to press reports, one 22 year old man was
killed in the exchange of gunfire, and three others,
including one policeman, were injured. The circumstances of
the clash are unclear, and three separate stories have
emerged.


2. (C) Government-controlled Jordan Radio reported November
24 that a number of persons had attacked and fired on Public
Security Directorate (PSD) patrols in the city. The PSD then
tried to disperse the attackers, an exchange of fire
occurred, with one killed and three injured. Doha-based
Al-Jazeera satellite television, by contrast, reported the
same day that the exchange of fire occurred after the PSD
attempted to detain Sayyaf, son of Islamic militant leader
Mohammed Shalibi (aka Abu Sayyaf). Sources at PSD have
offered a third version: that a Ma'an youth had been shooting
off firecrackers, a crowd gathered and when the PSD attempted
to disperse them the exchange of fire broke out. Finally, a
press source informally passed onto CAO a fourth version that
involves Ma'an youths throwing stones at the PSD patrol prior
to the shoot-out.


3. (C) Whichever version (if any) is accurate, it appears
that the situation in Ma'an, although still tense, has
subsided, at least for now. On November 26, the GOJ
announced that a curfew that had been imposed on the city in
the immediate aftermath of the November 24 shoot-out had been
lifted and that security forces had disappeared from the
streets. PSD APCs that had been withdrawn from around the
Embassy prior to the previous Ma'an operation were back in
place November 27.

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. . . AND INCIDENTS ELSEWHERE
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4. (C) The latest violence in Ma'an comes amidst reports of
other apparently unconnected incidents in the Kingdom that
have rattled Jordanians' nerves. During the week of November
18-23, some type of violence took place in the Jordan Valley
town of South Shuneh. The GOJ supervisor on the Jordanian
side of the Allenby bridge told Refcoord that a feud between
two Shuneh families had erupted into gunfire. The PSD, he
assured her, had contained the situation and was in the
process of rounding up weapons in the town. On November 24,
a hand grenade exploded in front of one of the Amman branches
of Arab Bank, the largest Bank in Jordan. No one was
injured. Until now, no group has claimed responsibility for
this act and its motive remains unknown.

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COMMENT: JORDANIANS ON EDGE
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5. (C) These events -- coming a month after the assassination
of USAID official Larry Foley and concurrent with the
announcement of authorized departure for Embassy Amman --
have gotten a great deal more attention than they would have
in calmer cirmcumstances. Amman's salons are consequently,
peppered with conversations asking whether Jordan's position
as "an island of sanity" in an unstable region may be at
risk. Many fear that the string of recent incidents, even if
unconnected, could be the beginning of a worrisome trend.


GNEHM