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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
British tourist killed, 5 injured in Jordan shooting
2006-09-04
A British man was killed today when a lone gunman shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is Great") started firing at a group of Western tourists in the Jordanian capital Amman.
but of course it's not Islam
Five other tourists - two British women, one Australian woman, one New Zealand woman and a Dutch man - were injured in the attack as well as a Jordanian policeman.

The dead Briton was named by Jordanian officials tonight as Christopher Stokes, 30. His family in the UK are said to be "devastated" at the news and his mother had to be sedated.

The attack happened at around 10.30am (0730GMT), as the group was preparing to leave the Greco-Roman amphitheatre, a busy attraction in downtown Amman. Karen Sparke, one of the British women injured in the shooting said she had a "very lucky escape".

Speaking from her hospital bed, Ms Sparke told BBC News 24: "We were walking up some steps when we heard - well, I didnÂ’t realise it was a gunshot, I thought it was a firecracker - and we turned around and saw this man pointing a gun at us and I got shot."

She said she had looked over and seen her friends lying on the ground. "I went up the steps a bit further and stood round the corner, and I realised I was bleeding all over," she said. "We lost one of ours, and two of them have had operations."

She said everyone who had looked after them had been "marvellous". "The locals came and dragged us away to protect us and then they got the ambulance," she said. "IÂ’m just really tender. I had a very lucky escape. ItÂ’s not real at the moment."

The gunman, in his 30s and named by officials as Nabeel Ahmed Issa Jaourah, was a Jordanian from the town of Zarqa, the birthplace of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the slain former al-Qaeda frontman.
go figure? Shoulda bulldozed it and salted the earth
Mr Jaourah was arrested and officials are now investigating whether he was acting on his own or belonged to a radical Islamist group.

The attack is the first to hit Amman since November 9, when triple suicide bombings on three Amman hotels killed 60 people. Those attacks were claimed by the al-Qaeda in Iraq group then led by al-Zarqawi. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

Rana Sabbagh-Gargour, Times Correspondent in Amman, said that the attack came amid rising antagonism towards the West.

"There is mounting frustration on the streets of the Arab world with the West, especially with the United States and Europe, over its perceived bias on the Middle Eastern conflict, Iraq and Lebanon," she said. "It is putting pressure on moderate Arab governments to revisit their politics and limiting their ability to manoeuvre."
the Arab Street™ is seething...except all the Jordanians who assisted them after they were shot
Although the Foreign Office has not changed the level of its advice, it does warn travellers of a high threat from terrorism.
Posted by:Frank G

#2  The wages of appeasement.
Posted by: gromgoru   2006-09-04 23:13  

#1  should ht'd Captain Ed on this one
Posted by: Frank G   2006-09-04 15:54  

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