By Suleiman Al-Khalidi
AMMAN (Reuters) -A senior Jordanian police officer was killed on Thursday in clashes with demonstrators in the southern city of Maan during protests over high fuel prices that spread to several cities across the kingdom, police said.
In a statement, police said the officer was shot in the head while dealing with “rioting” by a group of outlaws in the impoverished city that has in the past seen bouts of civil unrest over fuel hikes and cuts to subsidies.
A police source had earlier said the officer was shot by unknown assailants during clashes in the Husseiniya area of Maan. Four other policemen were injured, the source said.
Youths had clashed with police in several impoverished neighbourhoods of the city and in the heavily populated industrial city of Zarqa, north east of the capital Amman, witnesses said.
Anti-riot police fired tear gas in the Jabal al Abyad neighbourhood of the city of Zarqa to break up protests that broke out in Jordan’s second most populous city.
Witnesses said dozens of youths also staged a protest in the Tafiyla neighbourhood of the capital, where police chased demonstrators who were chanting anti-government slogans.
Youths burned tyres on a main highway between the capital and the Dead Sea, disrupting traffic, witnesses said.
The U.S. embassy issued a security alert saying U.S. government personnel had been restricted from both personal and official travel to southern Jordan.
Tensions have been mounting in Maan and several cities in southern Jordan after days of sporadic strikes by lorry drivers in protest at high fuel prices.
The government has promised to look into the strikers’ demands but has said it already has paid over 500 million dinars ($700 million) to cap fuel price hikes this year.
Shops in Maan and several other Jordanian provincial cities shut on Wednesday in solidarity with demands the government reduce diesel prices which truck drivers blame for mounting losses.
Some activist strikers have threatened to stage street protests in provincial cities on Friday.
Anger with the authorities over worsening living standards, corruption and high fuel prices has in the past triggered civil unrest in Jordan.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-KhalidiEditing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)
