Britannia Radio

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Two Israeli police officers shot dead in Jordan Valley terror attack

March 15, 2009, 11:31 PM (GMT+02:00)

Israeli troops cordon off scene of shooting in Jordan Valley

DEBKAfile's military sources report a big manhunt has been launched on both sides of the Israeli-Jordanian border for the gunmen who shot dead two Israeli police officers in an ambush of their van on Highway 90 near Masuah in the Jordan Valley Sunday night, March 15.

Israeli and Jordanian army units are pursuing the assailants. "The Imad Moughniyeh Martyr's Brigades" claimed the attack in an anonymous call to the French News Agency.

Magen David teams summoned to the scene found one of the victims dead and tried in vain to resuscitate his companion. Residents in northern Jordan Valley were told to stay indoors under cover on the assumption that the gunmen were still at large.

The incident is under investigation, including the possibility that the assailants may have infiltrated from Jordan.

This hypothesis is borne out by the professional way the attack was carried out, indicating a better standard of military training than displayed in terrorist attacks by West Bank Palestinians.

The perpetrators set their ambush at a bend in the road where conditions force traffic to slow down and waited in a dark spot far from the nearest habitation for a police or military vehicle to pass by.

Even in the nearest houses no one heard the shots.

It was only some time later, that a passing motorist came upon the overturned police car. His alert brought large military and police forces to the scene.

Their first assumption was that the terrorists had infiltrated form Jordan. West Bank Palestinian terrorists have enough Israeli targets to choose from in their immediate neighborhood without seeking out a target in the remote Jordan Valley close to the Jordanian border.

It has not been positively established at this point that the attackers did indeed come from the neighboring kingdom. Nevertheless, Israel put the Jordanian authorities on guard for a terrorist team on the loose in the region and both launched a pursuit.