by WorldTribune Staff, June 6, 2016
Three Jordanian intelligence officers were killed in what officials said was a “terrorist attack” on a Palestinian refugee camp near Jordan’s capital of Amman.
Jordanian government officials said the attack took place at an office of the General Intelligence Department at the Baqa’a refugee camp. The three intelligence officers and two civilian employees were killed in the attack, officials said.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Al Arabiya reported that security forces on the scene captured the two gunmen behind the attack after a two-hour chase.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says Baqa’a is the largest Palestinian camp in Jordan, housing more than 100,000 refugees
The Baqa’a camp was one of six set up in 1968 for Palestinian refugees fleeing the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
“Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan are in fact built-up neighborhoods, which house the descendants of Palestinians who fled Israel during Arab invasions of the Jewish state,” a report in Israel National News said. “In Jordan, as in most other Arab countries, Palestinians are segregated from the rest of society in an attempt to preserve their ‘refugee’ status as a political weapon, and often complain of discrimination.”
In March, Jordan said it had foiled planned attacks by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) when a military raid in the city of Irbid left seven suspected jihadists dead.