GID officer succumbs to injuries, bringing death toll from Balqa explosions to 4

AMMAN — The General Intelligence Department’s (GID) Maj. Saeed Deeb on Wednesday succumbed to wounds sustained from last week's explosion in Balqa, bringing the death toll from the incident to four, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Government Spokesperson Jumana Ghunaimat announced on Wednesday. 

Last Thursday, three people were killed and eight others were injured in two consecutive explosions that took place in a deserted area in Wadi Al Azraq area of Balqa Governorate, 29km west of Amman, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The first explosion was reported at 11:55am on Thursday, after which specialised security agencies responded immediately to the scene, where citizen Abdul Sattar Shurafa was found dead, according to Petra.

The second explosion took place as security personnel were investigating the scene, claiming the lives of Public Security Department officer First Lt. Ahmad Jaloudi and Warrant Officer Musab Otoum from the GID, in addition to injuring eight other security personnel, according to Ghunaimat.

Specialised security teams scanning the Wadi Al Azraq area after Thursday’s explosions found locally-made explosives buried underground that match those used by the terrorist cell that implemented the Fuheis attack last August in Salt, the government said on Friday.

In August of last year, a raid on a terrorist cell in Salt, which came in connection with a terrorist attack on a joint Gendarmerie-police patrol stationed in Fuheis a few days earlier, resulted in four deaths among personnel of the joint security force that raided the area in Salt, while security agents arrested five terrorists and killed three others.  

The bodies of three suspected terrorists were recovered from the rubble of the building they were hiding in, after they detonated a bomb when they were cornered by security forces.