Jordan: King's Bodyguards Shoot Protesters

by Mudar Zahran
Hudson New York

A visit by king Abdullah of Jordan turned violent yesterday when his bodyguards opened fire on protesters. This incident occurred one day after the Jordanian minister of foreign affairs, Nasser Juidah, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that "Jordan ­under Abdullah was different than Mubarak's Egypt," as "democratization was well under way in Jordan."

The king was on a field visit to Al-Hashemiyah University, in the rural area of Mafraq, East of Jordan. Upon the King's arrival at the university, protesters from Bani Hassan tribe, one of the biggest tribes, gathered before the King's motorcade; they were protesting their living conditions and the fact that the government has been stripping them from their rural-land possessions.

Members of the Royal Jordanian Guards accompanying the king opened fire on the protestors, injuring at least four according to several stories leaked to the Jordanian media. Official reports claim only two protesters were shot and nobody killed; nonetheless rumors circulated over several Jordanian website spoke of four dead young men.

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