AMMAN Ñ Jordan has foiled an insurgency attack against Israel.
Jordanian Information Minister Nabil Sharif said Jordanian soldiers
killed two insurgents and wounded two others as they tried to cross the
northern Jordanian border into Israeli-held territory. Sharif said the two
injured insurgents were captured.
"The troops returned fire and killed two of the assailants while the
other two were wounded and captured," Sharif said.
Sharif said the insurgents tried to infiltrate Israel at dawn on Monday
when they were spotted by border guards near the village of Wakas in
Jordan's Ahwar region on the eastern bank of the Jordan River. He said
insurgents
opened fire as they attempted to cross the river to the Israeli-controlled
West Bank.
The Jordanian soldiers later found automatic rifles and ammunition with
the insurgents, Sharif said. He would not elaborate.
The clash was the first attempted insurgency infiltration from Jordan
since before the U.S.-led war in Iraq in March. Sharif did not identify the
dead insurgents.
Israel and Jordan are said to have close military and security
relations. The two countries have established an early-warning system to
relay alerts regarding infiltration and insurgency attacks.