Amman: Jordanian security forces have arrested a man suspected of funding an attack by Daesh which killed 10 people including a Canadian tourist, a security source said Wednesday.
The suspect was detained in a raid on a house in Karak province on Tuesday by police looking for the perpetrators behind Sunday’s shooting spree, official news agency Petra quoted the source as saying.
The suspect “admitted to ties with the terrorist cell that targeted security forces and civilians” on Sunday “and to buying weapons and funding the cell,” the source said.
Another suspect and four policemen were killed in Tuesday’s shootout between gunmen and security forces at the house in Karak’s Qarifla area.
Jordanian television showed footage of the house, whose walls were riddled with bullet holes.
Sunday’s attack in Karak, home to one of the region’s biggest Crusader castles, killed seven policemen and two Jordanian civilians as well as a female Canadian tourist.
Four assailants were killed by the Jordanian security forces after an hours-long siege of the castle, where the suspects had fled after opening fire on police.
The security source said the investigation into the attack was ongoing.
Daesh on Tuesday claimed responsibility, saying it was carried out by four “soldiers of the caliphate” who used machineguns and hand grenades.
A statement said the assault targeted Jordanian “apostate” security forces and citizens of the US-led coalition battling the terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
Jordan is part of the alliance and has carried out air strikes targeting Daesh. It also hosts coalition troops on its territory.
Mu’ath Al Kassasbeh, a Jordanian fighter pilot from Karak, was captured by the militants when his plane went down in Syria in December 2014, and he was later burned alive in a cage.
Sunday’s attack has dealt a blow to the country’s vital tourism sector, which had already suffered from the 2011 Arab uprisings and conflict in neighbouring Iraq and Syria.
