On 9 November 2015, a

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

ian police officer opened fire on a police training center staff during their lunch break at the cafeteria in

Al-Muwaqqar Al-Muwaqqar () is a district in the Amman Governorate of north-western Jordan. The village contains the scant ruins of an Umayyad palace, the Qasr al-Muwaqqar, one of the desert castles. Little remains of the palace today except several acanthus ...

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, killing four, including two Americans, a South African, and a Jordanian. Six others were injured, including three Americans, a Lebanese, and two Jordanians, one of whom later died. The gunman was then killed by a fellow Jordanian officer. The attack took place on the tenth anniversary of

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Al-Qaeda in Iraq (; AQI), was a Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization affiliated with al-Qaeda. It was founded on 17 October 2004, and was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi until its disbandment on 15 October 2006 after he was killed in a targ ...

's 2005 Amman bombings. Investigations done by Jordanian officials found that the motive of the mass shooting was "financial and psychological problems of the perpetrator". The

mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...

is an uncommon event in the secure country.

Attack

The attack was on personnel at the United States funded Jordan International Police Training Centre (JIPTC), a facility that principally trains Palestinian and Iraqi police officers. The facility is located in the

district of the

Amman Governorate Amman Governorate, officially known as Muhafazat al-Asima (, English language, English translation: the Capital Governorate), is one of the governorates in Jordan. The governorate's capital is the city of Amman, which is also the country's capi ...

, and is staffed by contractors from the United States and other countries. On the same day, King Abdullah of Jordan paid a visit to the wounded lying in the

King Hussein Medical Center King Hussein Medical City () is a military medical complex that has five hospitals situated in Amman, Jordan. It is affiliated with the Jordanian Royal Medical Services (JRMS), a body of the Jordanian Armed Forces responsible for providing medica ...

. According to Jordanian Minister of the Interior Salameh Hammad, the investigation concluded that Abu Ubayd acted alone.

Victims

Two Jordanians, one South African, and two U.S. nationals were killed in the attack. The wounded included a Lebanese police lieutenant, two U.S. contractors, and three Jordanian police officers. The two Jordanian translators who were killed were Kamal Malkawi and Awni Aqrabawi. The Americans were James "Damon" Creach (42), from

New Tampa New Tampa is a region in Florida that encompasses both a area within the corporate limits of the City of Tampa, as well as a larger land area that is in unincorporated Hillsborough, but retains a Tampa mailing address. The incorporated portion ...

, Florida, and Lloyd "Carl" Fields Jr. of

Cape Coral Cape Coral is a city in Lee County, Florida, United States, on the Gulf of Mexico. Founded in 1957, the city's population had grown to 194,016 as of the 2020 census, a 26% increase from 154,309 at the 2010 census, making it the ninth-most p ...

, Florida. They were employed by

DynCorp International DynCorp International Inc. (), was an American private military contractor. Starting as an aviation company, the company also provided flight operations support, training and mentoring, international development, intelligence training and suppor ...

. The program they were working on is funded by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.Daily star.com.lb 10 November 2015. Lebanon's English language daily newspaper.

Perpetrator

The gunman was identified as 28-year-old police officer Anwar Mohammed Salama al-Saad Abu Zaid Bani Abdu, while Al-Rai newspaper, the government's official outlet, named the assailant as officer Anwar Abu Ubayd. The perpetrator was with the Jordanian criminal investigation department before he was transferred to the police training academy.

Source of weapons

The weapons were stolen from the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

Timber Sycamore Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by the United Kingdom and some Arabs, Arab intelligence services, including General Intelligence Presi ...

program.

Possible motive

On 14 November, the Jordanian government held a press conference to discuss the shooting. According to Minister of Interior Affairs Salameh Hammad, the officer was declared a lone wolf, and the motives of the officer were not related to any terrorist organizations but rather to the "financial and psychological problems of the perpetrator".

References