Jordan vows to clamp down on rioting against high fuel prices

Jordan will apply tough steps and redeploy more anti-riot police against demonstrators who protest violently, Interior Minister Mazen Farrayeh said on Friday.

Jordanians staged sit-ins on Friday and activists called for more protests over fuel price rises that have added to a cost-of-living squeeze, a day after riots in a southern city left one police officer dead, witnesses and security sources said.

The authorities said the policeman was killed on Thursday night by a gunshot fired by an unidentified individual when armed officers entered a neighborhood of Maan to quell riots.

Youths had attacked government property in the city, witnesses said.

anti-riot police against demonstrators who protest violently.

“We have seen a large jump in violent acts,” Farrayeh said in a news conference.

“After what happened, there will be tougher security measures to reinforce the security forces in the areas that witness such acts.”

Overnight, riot police chased scores of youths throwing stones in Amman, Zarqa, Irbid and other cities where Farrayeh said rioters torched public property, vandalized state buildings and burned tires that closed major highways across the kingdom.

The government has promised to examine truck strikers’ demands but says it has already paid more than 500 million dinars ($700 million) to cap fuel prices this year and cannot do much more if it wants to avoid breaching an International Monetary Fund deal.