Asia

Home page

Asia

Jordanian killer was on a journey to 'paradise or hell'

12 November 2015 00:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Days before he shot dead five people in a canteen during his lunch break, Jordanian police officer Anwar Abu Zeid sent a message to friends saying he was going on a journey to "paradise or hell", friends and security sources said, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The message, on the WhatsApp mobile messaging application, may hold clues for police seeking a motive for Monday's shooting spree in which two Americans, two Jordanians and a South African were killed at a police training facility.

Relatives described the 29-year-old police captain as pious but not an extremist", though he would wake at dawn each day to worship in the mosque in his village in rural northern Jordan.

But two officials close to security matters and relatives said evidence was growing of radical Islamist influences on Abu Zeid, and a security source, who asked not to be identified, suggested the message to close friends supported this notion.

"When we prepare our luggage for a journey ... we fear we may forget something, however small, and the longer the journey, the stronger the concern that we won't forget anything," the source quoted him as saying.

"So what if we are going to a residence ... in paradise or hell," the source added, but did not say on which day the message was sent.

The killings took place at the U.S.-funded King Abdullah Training Center near Amman on the 10th anniversary of al Qaeda suicide bombings that targeted three luxury hotels in the capital and killed 57 people.

No group has claimed responsibility for Monday's attack.

The Americans killed were former members of the U.S. military and were contracted to train police from regional allies such as Iraq and the Palestinian territories. The South African killed was also a trainer and the two slain Jordanians were translators.

Several accounts from officials with contacts in the security forces said Abu Zeid had smuggled an assault rifle and two handguns into the compound in his car. As an officer, he was not searched as he entered.

Security sources said that shortly after noon prayers he charged into a canteen on the compound, shouted Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest) and fired at least 50 bullets.

He then went outside and a police sniper shot him in the head near the outer gates of the compound after he defied calls to surrender, they said.