US embassy cable - 02AMMAN6938

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 006938 
 
SIPDIS 
 
CENTCOM FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/27/2012 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KPAL, JO 
SUBJECT: FURTHER MA'AN VIOLENCE, OTHER INCIDENTS, RATTLE 
JORDANIANS 
 
REF: (A) AMMAN 6823 (B) AMMAN 6535 (C) AMMAN 6650 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm.  Reasons 1.5 (b,d). 
 
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MORE VIOLENCE IN MA'AN . . . 
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1. (C) The southern city of Ma'an was again the site of a 
clash between police and local armed militants on November 
24.  According to press reports, one 22 year old man was 
killed in the exchange of gunfire, and three others, 
including one policeman, were injured.  The circumstances of 
the clash are unclear, and three separate stories have 
emerged. 
 
2. (C)  Government-controlled Jordan Radio reported November 
24 that a number of persons had attacked and fired on Public 
Security Directorate (PSD) patrols in the city.  The PSD then 
tried to disperse the attackers, an exchange of fire 
occurred, with one killed and three injured.  Doha-based 
Al-Jazeera satellite television, by contrast, reported the 
same day that the exchange of fire occurred after the PSD 
attempted to detain Sayyaf, son of Islamic militant leader 
Mohammed Shalibi (aka Abu Sayyaf).  Sources at PSD have 
offered a third version: that a Ma'an youth had been shooting 
off firecrackers, a crowd gathered and when the PSD attempted 
to disperse them the exchange of fire broke out.  Finally, a 
press source informally passed onto CAO a fourth version that 
involves Ma'an youths throwing stones at the PSD patrol prior 
to the shoot-out. 
 
3. (C) Whichever version (if any) is accurate, it appears 
that the situation in Ma'an, although still tense, has 
subsided, at least for now.  On November 26, the GOJ 
announced that a curfew that had been imposed on the city in 
the immediate aftermath of the November 24 shoot-out had been 
lifted and that security forces had disappeared from the 
streets.  PSD APCs that had been withdrawn from around the 
Embassy prior to the previous Ma'an operation were back in 
place November 27. 
 
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. . . AND INCIDENTS ELSEWHERE 
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4. (C) The latest violence in Ma'an comes amidst reports of 
other apparently unconnected incidents in the Kingdom that 
have rattled Jordanians' nerves.  During the week of November 
18-23, some type of violence took place in the Jordan Valley 
town of South Shuneh.  The GOJ supervisor on the Jordanian 
side of the Allenby bridge told Refcoord that a feud between 
two Shuneh families had erupted into gunfire.  The PSD, he 
assured her, had contained the situation and was in the 
process of rounding up weapons in the town.  On November 24, 
a hand grenade exploded in front of one of the Amman branches 
of Arab Bank, the largest Bank in Jordan.  No one was 
injured.  Until now, no group has claimed responsibility for 
this act and its motive remains unknown. 
 
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COMMENT: JORDANIANS ON EDGE 
--------------------------- 
 
5. (C) These events -- coming a month after the assassination 
of USAID official Larry Foley and concurrent with the 
announcement of authorized departure for Embassy Amman -- 
have gotten a great deal more attention than they would have 
in calmer cirmcumstances.  Amman's salons are consequently, 
peppered with conversations asking whether Jordan's position 
as "an island of sanity" in an unstable region may be at 
risk.  Many fear that the string of recent incidents, even if 
unconnected, could be the beginning of a worrisome trend. 
 
 
GNEHM