AMMAN: Jordan said on Monday 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, state media reported.
State news agency Petra said the country’s intelligence department had arrested 17 members of the cell and confiscated weapons and explosives that the militant group had planned to use in the operation, in which it says media organizations and moderate clerics were among would-be targets.
“The members of the cell had planned to execute a number of terrorist attacks simultaneously to destablise national security and sow chaos and terror among civilians,” the statement said.
The detainees were being interrogated before being put on trial in a military court, the authorities said without giving a date.
The statement said the cell had planned to wage a series of bank robberies and car thefts in the towns of Ruseifa and Zarqato to get financing, and manufactured homemade explosives from material bought from local markets.
King Abdullah, a Middle East ally of Western powers against Daesh 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.
Jordan has taken part in a US-led air campaign against Daesh in Syria. Several incidents over the past few years have jolted the Arab kingdom, which has been comparatively unscathed by the unrest that has swept the Middle East since 2011.
Militants from Al-Qaeda and other radical terrorist groups have long targeted the US-allied kingdom and dozens of militants are currently serving long prison terms.
-Arab News
