How Jordanians are standing together to tackle extremism
The police investigation forced ISIL militants hand, with operatives staging a
desperate plan B attack, storming Karak castle and attacking police along the way
Taylor Luck
When ISIL launched a series of attacks in southern Jordan last week that targeted police installations and Karak castle, one of the countrys most famous tourist attractions, it revealed that Jordan had a home-grown sleeper cell in its midst.
But the deadly clashes, which left 13 Jordanians and one Canadian dead, also revealed Jordans greatest weapon in the fight against ISIL: the Jordanian people.
It was a landlords concern about suspicious behaviour that tipped off the police who uncovered a terrorist safe house and weapons depot in the town of Qatraneh.
The police investigation forced ISIL militants hand, with operatives staging a desperate plan B attack, storming Karak castle and attacking police along the way.
After cataloguing the automatic weapons, homemade explosives and explosive belts, Jordans interior minister Salameh Hamad said Jordan believes the target was not just Karak but all of Jordan.
But civic acts in the line of national duty did not end there. After militants stormed the castle, gunning down its tourist policemen, Karak residents themselves took up arms. Civilians, some armed with as little as stones and others with licensed handguns traded fire with the militants while special operations forces got into position.
Even when security services charged the castle, everyday Jordanians ran alongside them, insisting on taking part in the liberation of the castle seized by the great Muslim general Salah Ad Din Al Ayyubi nearly 900years ago.
As raids, and shoot-outs, continued in southern Jordan, citizens were once again on the front lines. In the town of Qarayfela, north of Karak, citizens engaged in a shoot-out alongside police against suspected ISIL militants holed up in a house. Residents even took to mosque loudspeakers to denounce the militants, declaring this is not Islam turn yourselves in.
The sheer number and eagerness of civilians ready to put their lives on the line in defence of their homeland has even posed a challenge to the government. Officials warn that interference or large gatherings of concerned citizens set on taking on ISIL may hinder operations or result in large civilian casualties.
No matter the challenges they pose to the professionals, Jordans citizen-army has sent a message to the militants: Jordanians are not willing to give ISIL a single inch.
It may be counter-intuitive, as many of the attackers themselves may be Jordanian, born and raised in the very towns they are attacking.
Sure enough, there are as many as 3,000 Jordanians fighting alongside ISIL in Iraq and Syria. But the draw of a few individuals, a fraction of a percentile of 6.6 million Jordanians, to fight in neighbouring Syria should not be confused with the rejection of terror by an entire society.
Jordanian tribes again and again have disowned sons and daughters who have left for Syria under the cover of going to Umrah pilgrimage or studying in Turkey. Families of those involved in this weeks attacks have refused to receive their bodies, open mourning houses or bury them after their death.
Jordanians view the security services and the army as part of their family. Sure enough, in many towns and villages, every single household has a member in uniform. An attack on a policeman or soldier is seen an attack on the whole of Jordan.
All agree that ISIL made a mistake by targeting Karak and its symbol of resistance, the crusader castle. In the towns lore, it was the Muslim armies led by Salah Ad Din that expelled the invading crusader army. Songs are sung and poems are recited yearly about the brave Karak residents who rose up in defiance against the Ottomans in the early 20th century, and paid for it with their lives. Many residents gave their lives while fighting Israel in 1967.
Karak residents, and many Jordanians, see themselves as one of the last bastions of Arab nationalism. They have stood up to foreign invaders and occupiers before, and this week they proved they will do so again.
A brazen assault claimed by ISIL in the southern Jordanian city of Karak this week signalled a change intactics for the group, which had previously seemed reluctant to launch large-scale attacks in the kingdom,analysts say.
ISIL has not claimed any of the attacks carried out in Jordan over the past two years by apparent lone wolves with a history of radicalisation. But analysts say the group may have been lying in wait, observing the reaction of the Jordanian public to determine how much support they had in the kingdom before directly pursuing and declaring their own operations.
Admitting it carried out Sundays attack in Karak, which killed 10 people and injured 34, suggests ISILs open confrontation with Jordan has marked a new stage, said Mohammad Abu Rumman, a researcher at the University of Jordans Centre for Strategic Studies who specialises in the study of extremist groups, and a columnist for the Amman-based Al Ghad daily newspaper.
This stage is directly targeting Jordan from the inside, with attacks carried out by radicalised Jordanians, he added. ISIL is growing in Jordan and this is worrying. The danger lurks inside the country.
Sundays attack was only the second in Jordan to be claimed by ISIL. The group also claimed a suicide bombing at a border crossing with Syria in June that killed seven members of the Jordanian security forces.
The Karak assault came just weeks after three US special forces soldiers were shot dead at a military base in the southern city of Al Jafer by a member of the Jordanian security forces. That attack was not claimed by ISIL, however, and the circumstances are still being investigated.
With ISIL now in retreat in Syria and Iraq, it is seeking to mobilise extremist cells beyond its self-declared caliphate, Mr Abu Rumman added.
Sundays attack also marked the first time the group had targeted civilians in Jordan, something it had previously avoided for fear of alienating the public.
The Karak attack, in which two Jordanian civilians and a Canadian tourist were killed, suggests that this is no longer a concern.
The writer a political analyst
