A senior police officer was shot dead early Friday during protests in southern Jordan’s Maan province, the scene of several days of protests over soaring fuel prices, according to General Security.
“Maan Governorate Deputy Police Director Colonel Abdelrazzak Aldalabih died after being shot in the head while facing unrest,” General Security said in a statement.
The riots were “carried out by a group of vandals and outlaws in the Husseiniya region of Maan governorate,” some 218 km south of Amman, the text adds.
Later Friday morning, General Security announced that “one officer and one non-commissioned officer were wounded by gunfire while confronting vandals and rioters in Husseiniya”.
Strikes, which started with truck drivers, have erupted in several provinces in southern Jordan in recent days, before being followed by markets and businesses on Wednesday to protest rising fuel prices.
In some places, demonstrators blocked roads with burning tires or clashed with security forces.
Prices have almost doubled from last year, particularly for diesel, which is typically used by trucks and buses, and for kerosene, the main heating fuel.
In particular, in the face of the movement, the government has proposed increasing prices for drivers and distributing financial aid to support the most affected families, but these solutions do not appear to have been sufficiently satisfactory for the strikers.