Balqa explosion toll reaches five as one more officer succumbs to injuries

AMMAN — Another security officer on Saturday succumbed to wounds sustained from the Balqa explosion, raising the death toll from the incident to five, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Government Spokesperson Jumana Ghunaimat announced on Saturday.

Second Lt. Omar Ahmed Rahamneh of the Public Security Department's (PSD) explosives unit was injured earlier this month along with seven other security officers in two consecutive explosions that took place in a deserted area in the Wadi Al Azraq area of Balqa Governorate, 29km west of Amman, killing three people, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The General Intelligence Department’s (GID) Maj. Saeed Deeb, who was also among the injured, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday.

The first explosion was reported at 11:55am on February 14, after which specialised security agencies responded immediately to the scene, where citizen Abdul Sattar Shurafa was found dead.

The second explosion took place as security personnel were investigating the scene, claiming the lives of PSD officer First Lt. Ahmad Jaloudi and Warrant Officer Musab Otoum from the GID.

Specialised security teams scanning the Wadi Al Azraq area after Thursday’s explosions found locally-made explosives buried underground that match those used by the terrorist cell that implemented the Fuheis attack last August in Salt.

In August of last year, a raid on a terrorist cell in Salt, which came in connection with a terrorist attack on a joint Gendarmerie-police patrol stationed in Fuheis a few days earlier, resulted in four deaths among personnel of the joint security force that raided the area in Salt, while security agents arrested five terrorists and killed three others. 

The bodies of three suspected terrorists were recovered from the rubble of the building they were hiding in, after they detonated a bomb when they were cornered by security forces.

Rahamneh was laid to rest in his hometown to Yarqa, Balqa Governorate, later in the day.