Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/AMMAN: A senior Jordanian police officer was killed during clashes with demonstrators in the southern city of Maan during protests over high fuel prices.
An official said that the officer died after being shot by unknown assailants during clashes in the Husseiniya area of Maan. Four other policemen were injured. Witnesses said that the youths clashed with police in several impoverished neighborhoods of the city and the heavily-populated industrial town of Zarqa, northeast of the capital Amman.
Southern Jordan
Tensions have been mounting in Maan and several cities in southern Jordan after days of strikes by truck drivers protesting high fuel prices. Shops in Maan and several other Jordanian cities shut on Wednesday in solidarity and demanded the government decrease the fuel prices, which truck drivers blame for mounting losses.
Some strikers have threatened to stage street protests in the cities on Friday. Anger with the government officials over worsening living standards, corruption and high fuel prices had, in the past triggered civil unrest in the country.
