Jordanian authorities have threatened to crack down on those who incite violence during protests with an “iron fist”, while opposition groups pledge to continue demonstrations in the kingdom.
The protests, which erupted on Tuesday across the country in response to the government’s raising fuel and gas prices, are the largest and most sustained to hit the country since the start of uprisings in the region nearly two years ago.
“We will hit with an iron fist those who violated the law by stirring unrest,” Hussein Majali, Jordan’s police chief, said on Thursday.
Armed men taking advantage of street chaos caused by the protests, fired on two police stations late on Wednesday, wounding 17 people, including 13 police officers, officials said. One of the assailants was killed in the ensuing firefight.
Assailants stormed a police station in Irbid, in the country’s far north, and fired on officers there on Wednesday night.
Another police station came under attack in the northern Amman suburb of Shafa Badran, where automatic weapons were used.
In Salt, northwest of capital Amman, protesters set fire to a civil affairs office.
The scene was less deadly in Amman itself on Wednesday night, although up to 1,000 people had spilled onto the streets.
Hundreds of young men gathered at a usually busy road junction in the capital, facing off with riot police, who shot tear gas as tensions rose.
The unrest was not confined to the country’s north, as about 2,000 protesters in the city of Karak, about 140km south of Amman, shouted: “Down, down with you, Abdullah,” and “Get out and leave us alone” as they marched through the town on Wednesday, shattering shop windows, witnesses and police said.
source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012111521951917713.html
