TUESDAY April 15, 2025 |
By thenewsdesk.ng
Jordan said Tuesday, April 15, 2025, that it had arrested 16 people linked to the Muslim Brotherhood who were trained and financed in Lebanon and had plotted attacks on targets inside the kingdom involving rockets and drones.
According to Agency reports, authorities said at least one rocket was ready to be launched as part of an operation that had been under surveillance by security forces since 2021.
A security source said the suspects were connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, a Hamas ally and Jordan’s largest opposition group, while the head of the cell who trained some of its members was based in Lebanon.
Hamas and the Brotherhood have been accused of fomenting anti-government street protests in Jordan amid the war in Gaza, which was sparked when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. The US-backed Hashemite Kingdom has a significant Palestinian population.
In a statement released on social media, Jordan’s General Intelligence Department said the kingdom’s security forces found a rocket manufacturing facility alongside a drone factory, both of which were part of “the plot aimed at harming national security, sowing chaos and causing material destruction inside the kingdom.”
Jordan’s government also published a video of confessions by the suspects, who had been referred to the state security court for trial.
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said the country’s security forces found rockets in a secret hideout on the outskirts of Amman that were being manufactured with a range of 3-5 kilometers (1.8-3 miles) for use against targets inside the kingdom.
A security source said dozens of rockets were found.
Amer Al Sabaileh, a prominent security analyst, told Reuters that the thwarted plot involved “new tactics, rockets and drones.”
“This means a complete change in the way the Muslim Brotherhood are dealing with Jordan and targeting its security,” said Al Sabaileh.
Jordan, which expelled Hamas in 1999, enjoys relative stability compared with other countries in the region but has previously announced arrests on national security charges.
Last May, Jordanian officials said the country had thwarted an arms transfer from Hamas benefactor Iran, via Syria, to the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan.
Israel has also thwarted several arms-smuggling plots from Jordan, announcing in February that security forces had detained nine Israeli citizens and one West Bank Palestinian on suspicion of running one smuggling route. Iranian officials also told The New York Times last year that Iran employs Bedouins to smuggle arms from Jordan to Palestinian terror groups in the West Bank.
