‘No stepping up of security measures in Maan’

AMMAN — Authorities do not plan to step up security measures or resort to collective punishment in Maan, after a security officer was shot and killed in the southern town, officials said Monday. 

Meanwhile, police said they are still searching for unidentified assailants who shot and killed Gendarmerie officer Nart Nafesh while on duty in Maan on Sunday.

Responding to a question about the government’s response to the incident, Interior Minister Hussein Majali said at a press conference held by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour that the killing of the officer was an “assassination” and those who killed him were trying to hinder initiatives undertaken to solve the town’s problems and disputes with the central government following several months of tension.

However, he stressed that the government will not be lenient with the assailants and they will be detained and brought to justice, he said.

Nafesh, 23, was part of a patrol that was guarding a post in the city of Maan, some 220km south of Amman, when a group of outlaws opened fire with machine guns at 4:45am on Sunday.

He was struck in the chest and died before reaching hospital.

“We are searching for suspects but have not identified anyone so far,” Gendarmerie Public Relations Department Director Lt. Col. Ahmad Abu Hammad told The Jordan Times.

No one else was injured in the shooting.

Abu Hammad said Gendarmerie units are still present in Maan “to enforce the law and ensure stability and safety of its citizens”.

ìThe level of our presence in the city has been the same for months now.  We have not changed our strategy,î the official stressed.

Over the past few months, several instances of unrest have been recorded in Maan following the death of one person and the injury of a dozen others, including security personnel, during police raids to detain wanted persons.