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Babylon & Beyond

JORDAN: Protests turn violent, scores reportedly injured

By Alexandra Zaviswriter 
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Demonstrations turned violent as government supporters clashed with protesters in the Jordanian capital Friday, hurling stones at each other. Scores of people were injured, according to news reports from Amman.

[Updated at 11:45 a.m. PST: Hamza Mansour, leader of the opposition Islamic Action Front, said 26-year-old party member Khairi Jamil Saeed was ‘killed as a result of brutal police beating on his head and body,’ the Associated Press reported. It was the first reported death of a protester since the unrest began.]

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Inspired by popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, protesters have been pressing King Abdullah II to hand over more power to the parliament. But most of the demonstrations have been peaceful and relatively small.

Friday’s violence started when several hundred government loyalists attacked more than 1,000 demonstrators who had vowed to camp out in a central square in front of the Interior Ministry until their demands were met, the Associated Press reported.

Police fired water cannons to disperse the crowds. Hundreds of officers then stormed the area, hitting anti-government demonstrators with batons, AP said.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said police were caught between the two sides and several officers were injured, CNN reported.

‘Things have gotten a little out of hand,’ he was quoted as saying on CNN.com. “But we have a leadership that initiates reform.”

-- Alexandra Zavis

Babylon & Beyond
Alexandra Zavis

Alexandra Zavis is a former writer and editor on the Los Angeles Times’ Foreign Desk who has reported from more than 40 countries. She spent a decade with the Associated Press, covering Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other war-torn places. After joining The Times in 2006, she has served as a Baghdad correspondent and as a California reporter covering poverty and veterans issues. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award for distinguished reporting on foreign affairs and was part of teams of reporters awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for foreign correspondence and APME’s International Perspective Award. She is a graduate of Oxford University and City University in London.

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