Jordan Foils ISIS Plot Targeting Intelligence, Police

Jordanian security vehicles seen near the General Intelligence directorate offices, north of Amman, Jordan, June 6, 2016. Reuters.
Jordanian security vehicles seen near the General Intelligence directorate offices, north of Amman, Jordan, June 6, 2016. Reuters.
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Jordan Foils ISIS Plot Targeting Intelligence, Police

Jordanian security vehicles seen near the General Intelligence directorate offices, north of Amman, Jordan, June 6, 2016. Reuters.
Jordanian security vehicles seen near the General Intelligence directorate offices, north of Amman, Jordan, June 6, 2016. Reuters.

Jordan announced on Sunday that it has foiled an ISIS plot to target police stations and the intelligence bureau in the city of Ruseifa, 15 kilometers northeast of Amman.

Next week, the military-run state security court will begin examining a list of charges against a dormant cell of 15 ISIS-linked members for planing terrorist attacks on employees at the Intelligence Bureau, the Police directorate and a security center in Russeifa.

The dormant cell also planned to target security patrols on the Amman-Zarqa highway by the end of 2017. 

The suspects face seven charges: Plotting to carry out terrorist attacks, possession of weapons to use them in terrorist activities, spreading the ideologies of terrorist groups, selling weapons for illegitimate use and not reporting information linked to terrorist operations.

According to the charges, the suspects had been informed of an ISIS fatwa allowing them to carry out military operations in Jordan.

The 15 suspects, who originate from Russeifa, were all arrested by the Jordanian intelligence between November 24 and 27, 2017.

According to the list of charges, the suspects had pledged allegiance to the first suspect as the Emir of the cell, representing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Based on this pledge, the first four suspects agreed to carry out attacks on members of the Ruseifa intelligence office.

The third suspect had planned the attacks to take revenge from members of the intelligence office, who had previously arrested him on criminal charges.

In recent years, Jordan has been targeted by several terrorist attacks, particularly since becoming a leading member of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria.



Lebanon: Hezbollah Says it Launches First Drone Attack on Israel's Ashdod Naval Base

File photo: Members of Israeli security and emergency services deploy at the site of a shooting on the Yavne interchange, near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on October 15, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
File photo: Members of Israeli security and emergency services deploy at the site of a shooting on the Yavne interchange, near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on October 15, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Says it Launches First Drone Attack on Israel's Ashdod Naval Base

File photo: Members of Israeli security and emergency services deploy at the site of a shooting on the Yavne interchange, near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on October 15, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
File photo: Members of Israeli security and emergency services deploy at the site of a shooting on the Yavne interchange, near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on October 15, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Lebanon's Hezbollah has launched a drone attack on the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel for the first time, the Iran-backed group said on Sunday in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the attack.
On Saturday, Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut killed at least 20 people, as the once-rare attacks on the heart of Lebanon's capital continued without warning while diplomats scrambled to broker a cease-fire.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said 66 people were wounded in the strikes, which were the fourth in central Beirut in less than a week.
US envoy Amos Hochstein traveled to the region in pursuit of a deal to end months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has erupted into full-on war.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
Also Saturday, a drone strike killed two people and injured three in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. Other airstrikes killed eight people, including four children, in the eastern town of Shmustar, five others in the southern village of Roumin, and another five people in the northeastern village of Budai.