Gunman shouts ‘God is great’ before opening fire on tourists

A GUNMAN yesterday shot at a group of foreign tourists visiting the Roman Amphitheatre in Jordan’s capital, killing a British man and wounding six other people including a police officer.

Police overpowered the gunman at the scene and arrested him.

Jordan – a key US ally – has been the site of numerous terrorist attacks targeting westerners and their haunts: The worst, a triple suicide bombing at hotels in Amman in November, killed 60 people including Westerners and Arabs.

Interior Minister Eid al-Fayez said those hurt included two British women, a Jordanian police officer, a Dutch man, an Australian woman and another woman from New Zealand.

“This is a cowardly terrorist attack, which we regret took place on Jordanian soil,” al-Fayez said. “This operation is considered a terrorist act unless the man is found to be deranged.”

He added that the gunman was being interrogated.

Government spokesperson Nasser Judeh declined to say if the assailant was believed to be linked to any known terror organisation.

“The investigation is under way and it’s still early to tell.”

Judeh said the wounded were rushed to a nearby state hospital after the attack which took place in broad daylight as the tourists visited the popular attraction in Amman’s bustling downtown district.

Eyewitness Mohammad Jawad Ali, an Iraqi, said the gunman, clean shaven and in his mid-30s, surprised the tourists, wielding a gun and shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is great) before he fired several shots directly at them.

The attack was the first major terror attempt in Jordan since last November’s triple Amman hotel blasts claimed by al-Qaeda in Iraq. Sixty-three people, including three Iraqi suicide bombers, died in the bombings, the most serious in Jordan’s recent history. — Sapa-AP