Jordan issues death sentences for 2018 ISIS attack on police

A Jordanian court on Wednesday (February 22) sentenced three people to death and handed eight others prison sentences of up to 20 years for their roles in a 2018 "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) terror operation in the city of Salt.

The State Security Court condemned three to death by hanging, including one in absentia, for their "involvement in terrorist acts using weapons and explosives that led to the death of one person".

Eight others were handed prison sentences ranging between five and 20 years, the Jordanian news agency, Petra, reported.

Three others, including two women, were acquitted and released.

The charges included committing murder, making explosives for use in terrorist operations, funding terrorist organisations, endorsing terrorist ideologies, joining terrorist organisations and selling and transporting weapons and ammunition.

The cell had been preparing to stage a series of attacks in Jordan, Interior Minister Samir Mubaidin said.

According to the indictment, the 11 convicts were found to have formed "a criminal gang with the aim of undermining the security and stability of the kingdom ... and undertaking armed terrorist operations" in Jordan.

They had planned to target buses carrying security forces, as well as an intelligence building and police patrols, the indictment said.

They had been disseminating information about ISIS among one another and keeping up with the group's media releases, and had started promoting its ideology via videos they had obtained from the group, Petra reported.

They had identified "military transportation buses, security services and patrols, the Salt office of the intelligence department, and the governorate building as potential targets for terrorist military operations", the indictment said.

They also had agreed on the specifics of how those operations would be carried out, according to the indictment.

Deadly attack on patrol car

On the night of August 10, 2018, a policeman was killed and six others were wounded when a homemade bomb exploded under a patrol car at a music festival in al-Fuhais, which lies between Amman and the city of Salt.

The following day, a joint unit of special forces, police and army troops raided a house in Salt, northwest of Amman, in search of a suspected terrorist cell.

The suspects, who were holed up inside an apartment, "refused to surrender and opened heavy fire toward a joint security force", government spokeswoman Jumana Ghneimat said at the time.

They also "blew up the building in which they were hiding, and which they had booby-trapped earlier", she said.

Three members of the security forces were killed in the shootout with the gunmen, she said. A fourth, who was critically wounded, died of his injuries the next day.

The bodies of three "terrorists", as well as automatic weapons, were found under the rubble of the building, Ghneimat said.

Five militants were arrested during the operation.

Medical sources said 11 people were wounded during the raid, including members of the security forces and civilians who were residents of the building.

Women and children were among those hurt, they said.

Jordan's King Abdullah said the kingdom would "strike mercilessly and forcefully" against those who sought to harm it.

"This cowardly terrorist act, and any act that targets the security of Jordan, will only add to our unity, strength and determination to wipe out terrorism and its criminal gangs," he told a meeting of top security officials.

Jordan has played a key role in the international coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and has been the target of the group's deadly attacks.

Many Jordanian security personnel lost their lives during terrorist operations in Karak, Irbid and the border areas with Syria in 2016.

Abdullah has more recently warned that ISIS has been regrouping and has called on world powers to deal with its reemergence.