Top police officer killed, two wounded in fuel price protests in Jordan
A senior police officer has been killed and two other officers sustained injuries during clashes with demonstrators in the southern Jordanian province of Ma’an, as protests over high fuel prices have spread to several cities across the kingdom.
The Public Security Directorate (PSD) said in a statement Colonel Abdul Razzaq Dalabeh, the deputy provincial police chief, was shot in the head late on Thursday while dealing with “rioting” by a group of outlaws in the town of al-Husseiniya.
The town has in the past seen bouts of civil unrest over fuel price hikes and cuts to subsidies.
A separate police statement said an officer and a non-commissioned officer “were shot while calming down ‘saboteurs’ who had staged riots.”
Witnesses said a long convoy of armored vehicles was seen entering Husseiniya, as reinforcements were sent to the neighborhood where the police officer was killed.
Youths have clashed with police in several neighborhoods of the town over the past few days.
Skirmishes were also reported in the heavily populated industrial city of Zarqa, northeast of the capital Amman.
Anti-riot police fired tear gas in the Jabal al-Abyad neighborhood of Zarqa to break up the protests.
Elsewhere in the Tafiyla neighborhood of the capital, dozens of young demonstrators staged a protest. Police chased those who were chanting anti-government slogans.
Demonstrators also blocked and burned tires on a key highway between the capital and the Dead Sea, disrupting traffic.
Tensions have been mounting in Ma’an and several provinces in southern Jordan after days of strikes by truck drivers protesting against high fuel prices. The drivers demand the government reduce diesel prices, which they blame for their mounting losses.
Shops in Ma’an and several other Jordanian provincial cities shut on Wednesday in solidarity with the strikes.
Fuel prices in Jordan have nearly doubled compared with a year earlier, particularly the diesel used by trucks and buses, and kerosene for heating.
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