Jordan: State Security Court Rules against Terror Suspects

Jordan: State Security Court Rules against Terror Suspects
TT

Jordan: State Security Court Rules against Terror Suspects

Jordan: State Security Court Rules against Terror Suspects

Jordan's State Security Court issued on Wednesday 16 verdicts on terrorism cases in which the defendants planned to target national security, security headquarters, army barracks, a number of strategic government sites and a number of foreign embassies.

Some of the accused were convicted of belonging to ISIS, promoting its ideology and attempting to join terrorist groups.

In its verdicts, which were issued under the chairmanship of its State Security Court President Colonel Mohammed al-Afif and membership of the civilian judges Ahmed al-Qatarneh and Dr. Nasser al-Salamat, the court explained that the defendants were members of terrorist organizations and that most of them belong to ISIS.

The verdicts ranged from 15 years imprisonment (maximum) to two and a half years of imprisonment, while there are some convicts who were acquitted.

The court convicted two of the accused with possession and manufacture of explosives for the purpose of illegal use and ordered the imprisonment of one of them for 15 years and the other for 10 years.

According to the indictment, the first suspect was wanted in several cases and classified as "very dangerous". He disappeared in a non-populated area and was possessing explosive devices he has manufactured already to attack security men when they try to arrest him.

The defendant was able to manufacture 18 explosive devices with the help of the second defendant. While driving a stolen pickup truck carrying 10 explosive devices, one of which was within his reach, security officers apprehended him, arrested him, seized the devices and eight others from his house.

The court also sentenced the accused to 15 years in prison and three others to five years each.

The main suspect planned to attack security guards of a foreign embassy in Amman and carry out an "incursion operation" by stabbing the security men with a large knife.

The indictment said that the accused worked as a butcher, and he brought the knife before the operation to his home and wrote a will to his parents asking them to smile when receiving his corps because he called himself a "martyr". However, the suspect was arrested before carrying out the operation, and the knife and the will were seized from inside his house.



Israeli Forces Surround Lebanon’s Khiam Ahead of Storming it

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
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Israeli Forces Surround Lebanon’s Khiam Ahead of Storming it

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)

Israeli forces have blocked supply routes to the southern Lebanese border city of al-Khiam ahead of storming it.

They have also surrounded the strategic city with Hezbollah fighters still inside, launching artillery and air attacks against them.

Hezbollah fighters have been holding out in Khiam for 25 days. The capture of the city would be significant and allow Israeli forces easier passage into southern Lebanon.

Field sources said Israeli forces have already entered some neighborhoods of Khiam from its eastern and southern outskirts, expanding their incursion into its northern and eastern sectors to fully capture the city.

They cast doubt on claims that the city has been fully captured, saying fighting is still taking place deeper inside its streets and alleys, citing the ongoing artillery fire and drone and air raids.

Israel has already cut off Hezbollah’s supply routes by seizing control of Bourj al-Mamlouk, Tall al-Nahas and olive groves in al-Qlaa in the Marayoun region. Its forces have also fanned out to the west towards the Litani River.

The troops have set up a “line of fire” spanning at least seven kms around Khiam to deter anti-tank attacks from Hezbollah and to launch artillery, drone and aerial attacks, said the sources.

The intense pressure has forced Hezbollah to resort to suicide drone attacks against Israeli forces.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television said Israeli forces tried to carry out a new incursion towards Khiam’s northern neighborhoods.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that since Friday night, Israeli forces have been using “all forms of weapons in their attempt to capture Khiam, which Israel views as a strategic gateway through which it can make rapid ground advances.”

It reported an increase in air and artillery attacks in the past two days as the forces try to storm the city.

The troops are trying to advance on Khiam by first surrounding it from all sides under air cover, it continued.

They are also booby-trapping some homes and buildings and then destroying them, similar to what they have done in other southern towns, such as Adeisseh, Yaround, Aitaroun and Mais al-Jabal.

Khiam holds symbolic significance to the Lebanese people because it was the first city liberated following Israel’s implementation of United Nations Security Council 425 on May 25, 2000, that led to its withdrawal from the South in a day that Hezbollah has since declared Liberation Day.