Jordan: Death toll from policeman attack rises to 5

AMMAN, Jordan

The death toll from Monday’s shooting rampage by a Jordanian policeman in Amman has risen from three to five after two Jordanians succumbed to their injuries, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani announced Monday night.

Momani had said in an earlier statement that three security instructors -- two Americans and one South African -- had been shot dead by a Jordanian police officer at the U.S.-funded Jordan International Police Training Center (JIPTC) outside the Jordanian capital.

Momani added that the assailant had been killed by other officers in the immediate wake of the attack.

Jordan's King Abdullah II harshly denounced the attacks and sent his condolences to both U.S. President Barrack Obama and South African President Jacob Zuma.

According to U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby, the JIPTC is used primarily to train Palestinian security forces.

The training program, he added, which has been running since 2008, is operated and funded by the U.S. State Department.

Kirby said the slain U.S. nationals were “trainer-monitors” from the U.S.-based DynCorp working on a State Department contract.

Obama said he was taking the incident “very seriously”, stressing that Washington would work closely with Jordanian officials to determine the exact circumstances of the deadly incident.

Notably, Monday’s shooting occurred exactly 10 years to the day after a series of coordinated bomb attacks struck three luxury hotels in Amman, killing dozens.

Responsibility for the 2005 attack was claimed by the now defunct Al-Qaeda in Iraq, many members of which subsequently went on to form the Daesh militant group.