Jordan’s safety providers say they’ve arrested 16 individuals suspected of plotting assaults contained in the nation involving rockets and drones.
The Common Intelligence Division stated the suspects had been below surveillance since 2021 and their plans had been aimed toward “concentrating on nationwide safety, sowing chaos and sabotage”.
They concerned possession of explosives and computerized weapons, the manufacture of rockets, the concealment of 1 rocket able to be launched, a challenge to fabricate drones, and the coaching of people each in Jordan and overseas, it alleged.
State media cited the federal government’s spokesman as saying the suspects had been members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which denied any involvement.
Communications Minister Mohammed al-Momani instructed reporters that the 16 suspects had been divided into 4 cells with separate assignments, in response to Petra information company:
- The primary cell, which had three foremost members who had been arrested in 2023, transported and saved explosives, together with TNT, C4 and Semtex, in addition to computerized weapons smuggled from overseas, he stated. A fourth member of the cell allegedly labored to hide a Katyusha rocket geared up with a detonator within the south-western Marj al-Hamam neighbourhood of the capital, Amman. Momani stated the rockets had a variety of between three and 5 kilometres, which indicated that the suspects deliberate to focus on places in Jordan
- The second three-member cell, which was arrested in February, had begun manufacturing short-range rockets and storing them in warehouses in Amman and the town of Zarqa, simply to the north-east, he stated, including that they’d obtained coaching and funding from overseas
- Exterior events had been additionally allegedly supporting the third, four-member cell concerned within the drone manufacturing challenge
- Momani stated the fourth cell, with 5 members, had labored to recruit operatives to bear unlawful safety coaching programs.
All 16 suspects have been referred to the State Safety Court docket on costs of violating the Anti-Terrorism legislation, in response to Momani.
Later, state-run Jordan Tv broadcast what it stated had been confessions of eight of the suspects, six of whom stated they had been members of the Muslim Brotherhood, in response to Petra.
A press release from the Brotherhood rejected what it known as the “unjust accusations” made by Momani and insisted it had no hyperlinks to, or data of, the plots.
The Islamist group – whose political arm, the Islamic Motion Entrance, is the most important opposition group in parliament – additionally careworn that it “adhered to the nationwide line” and “remained dedicated to its peaceable method”.
Jordanian officers have beforehand accused the Brotherhood of instigating pro-Hamas protests following the beginning of the Gaza conflict with the purpose of destabilising the dominion, which borders Israel and a number of other Arab states.
A number of suspects had been additionally cited as saying that they’d travelled to Lebanon to fulfill and bear coaching with the individual overseeing the plots.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, instructed his Jordanian counterpart Jafar Hassan that it was able to co-operate in tackling potential threats to their nations, Petra reported.
