Jordan: Police officer killed during protests, government vows to clamp down on rioting

Shafaq News/ One Friday, one police officer was killed and others wounded in clashes with demonstrators in Maan City, southern Jordan.

Hundreds waved the streets across Jordan, protesting over high fuel prices.

The Police explained that the officer was shot in the head while dealing with "rioting" and "We will strike with an iron fist anyone who tries to attack lives and property."

The interior minister said Jordan would apply challenging steps and redeploy more anti-riot Police against demonstrators who protested violently against price hikes after nationwide clashes leading to one fatality.

Mazen Farrayeh said in a news conference the government would allow peaceful protests but would not tolerate any rioting that destroys public and private property, such as that which took place on Thursday.

Youths had clashed with Police in several impoverished neighborhoods of the city and the heavily populated industrial city of Zarqa, northeast of the capital Amman, witnesses told Reuters.

Anti-riot Police fired tear gas in the Jabal al Abyad neighborhood of Zarqa to break up protests in Jordan's second most populous city.

Witnesses said that youth burned tires on the main highway between the capital and the Dead Sea, disrupting traffic.

In the north of the country near the border with Syria, youths clashed with Police in several neighborhoods in Irbid, the country's third-largest city by population. Reuters reported.

Sporadic skirmishes spread to other smaller towns in the vicinity, where Police used tear gas to disperse stone-throwing youths.