Date: Aug 13, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Jordan detains five suspects after deadly clash AMMAN: A Jordanian official says five suspected militants are in custody after opening fire and setting off explosions that killed four members of the security forces and collapsed a multistory building. The clash late Saturday in the town of Salt raised new concerns about militants’ attempts to carry out large-scale attacks to destabilize the pro-Western kingdom. The Hala Akhbar news website linked to Jordan’s military said Sunday that the suspects are Jordanians and that the cell planned to attack security installations and other sensitive targets. Government spokeswoman Jumana Ghunaimat initially said three suspects were in custody, but later raised the number to five. Authorities did not provide details about their affiliation. Events were set in motion Friday when assailants detonated a homemade bomb under a police car, killing an officer. In a huge security operation, Jordanian forces laid siege to the building in a residential part of Salt Saturday night in a search for those responsible the attack on a police van. The police vehicle had been maintaining security near a music festival in the majority Christian town of Fuhais, near the capital Amman and 15 kilometers from Salt. Four security personnel were killed during the operation after the suspected militants sought sanctuary in the multistorey building in Salt, a hillside city, the government said. The side of the building partially collapsed, possibly because of a blast from a suicide bomber inside, a security source said. Security forces had seized automatic weapons in a “continuing operation,” Ghunaimat told Reuters. No group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in Fuhais on the van in which one policeman was killed and six others were injured. Militants from Daesh (ISIS) and other radical extremist groups have long targeted the U.S.-allied kingdom and dozens of militants are currently serving long prison terms. King Abdullah, a Middle East ally of Western powers against Islamist militancy who has also safeguarded Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel, has been among the most vocal leaders in the region in warning of threats posed by radical groups. Several incidents over the past few years have jolted the Arab kingdom, which has been comparatively unscathed by the uprisings, civil wars and Islamist militancy that have swept the Middle East since 2011. Ghunaimat had earlier said search and rescue operations were being conducted to ensure no civilians were being held hostage in what was left of the building. “The building in which the terrorist cell was found is about to fall and will be demolished to prevent a sudden collapse,” Ghunaimat added. The shootout also injured at least 20 people, including women and children living in the area. They had been taken overnight to a main hospital in the capital, a medical source said. Prime Minister Omar Razzaz set up a “crisis cell” bringing top security and government officials to coordinate the large scale security operation deploying hundreds of forces. The security forces were investigating if the militants were part of a wider sleeper cell network of Islamist radicals that had planned a series of attacks, an official source said. Jordan said this year that it had foiled a Daesh plot that included plans for a series of attacks last November on security installations, shopping malls and moderate religious figures. It arrested the suspects. Security forces have been extra vigilant with warnings that sympathizers of Daesh could launch revenge attacks after the militants were driven out of most of the territory they once controlled in Syria and Iraq. Intelligence officials and some experts believe widening social disparities and a perception of widespread official corruption is fueling a rise in radicalization among disaffected youths in a country with high unemployment rate and growing poverty.