Three Members of Terror Cell Killed in Jordan After Escape of Two

Members of the Jordanian security authorities in Amman (File Photo - Reuters)
Members of the Jordanian security authorities in Amman (File Photo - Reuters)
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Three Members of Terror Cell Killed in Jordan After Escape of Two

Members of the Jordanian security authorities in Amman (File Photo - Reuters)
Members of the Jordanian security authorities in Amman (File Photo - Reuters)

A statement released by the Jordanian Public Security Department, or PSD, following the killing of three wanted individuals, raised a plethora of questions regarding the existence of facilitations received by the inmates from inside the heavily fortified Muwaqqar Prison, located 45 kilometers east of Amman.

The statement indicated that the security forces identified the fugitives’ whereabouts, located hundreds of meters from the southeastern border strip of the kingdom in a highly rugged area.

Consequently, a specialized security unit was prepared and initiated a thorough search for them after they abandoned their escape vehicle and disappeared into the desert.

Once again, the case of “Al-Husseiniya terrorist cell” which was uncovered in December of 2022, takes the spotlight.

This comes after the killing of three wanted individuals, two of whom recently fled from prison under mysterious circumstances in an unprecedented escape operation.

They managed to flee from within one of the rehabilitation centers just days ago.

PSD said on Sunday that three men wanted on terrorism charges were killed in an exchange of fire with police on the kingdom’s southeastern borders.

PSD confirmed that two of the three men killed in a police shootout on Saturday were inmates who had recently escaped from a rehabilitation center.

All three are members of the “Al-Husseiniya cell,” which was involved in the killing of Col. Abdul Razzaq Al-Dalabeeh on Dec. 16 last year in the southern city of Maan, which was rocked by demonstrations against increasing fuel prices.

Exposing a terrorist cell with extremist ideology in Al-Husseiniya region of Maan Governorate, southern Jordan, in the final month of last year, raised concerns about the resurgence of this ideological movement and its dormant cells within the country.

These concerns were further heightened by the nature and details of the operation that was announced at the time, involving the killing of three members of the General Security Directorate at various ranks during a security raid targeting the “terrorist cell.”

The operation was carried out to apprehend the suspects involved in the killing of Al-Dalabeeh.



Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Former head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks on Sunday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries.

Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former President Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father decades ago. He is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family's 54-year rule came to an end.

“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. The younger Jumblatt was a critic of the Assads, though he briefly allied with them at one point to gain influence in Lebanon's ever-shifting political alignments.

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he said, pledging that it would respect Lebanese sovereignty.

Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.