Posted on 03/15/2008 3:02:23 PM PDT by forkinsocket
AMMAN (AFP) — A German tourist was stabbed on Friday in central Amman and hospitalised but in stable condition, Jordanian police said, as a minister ruled out terrorist motives.
"A German tourist was stabbed today in the city centre near Al-Husseini mosque and was rushed to hospital," police Major Mohammed Khatib said. "The tourist underwent surgery and is now in a stable condition."
A security source, who declined to be named, told AFP the victim, a 63-year-old whose name was being verified, had been stabbed with a knife.
A policeman patrolling the area immediately arrested the attacker, Khatib said, adding that an investigation was underway.
Interior Minister Eid Fayez later told the state-run television that the attack had "nothing to do with terrorism."
"The attacker is a crazy person who acted alone and stabbed the tourist with a knife, and this has nothing do with terrorism. Our kingdom is safe, and such things could happen in any country," Fayez said.
"I visited the German citizen and he is in a stable condition," he added without giving the name of the tourist.
Jordan is one of the most stable countries in the violence-wracked Middle East and a major Western ally which has strived to promote itself as a key tourist destination in the region.
But in September 2006, a Jordanian blacksmith opened fire on a group of Western holidaymakers, killing a British citizen and wounding five other tourists at a Roman amphitheatre near Amman's Al-Husseini mosque.
The assailant, Nabil Ahmad Issa Jaaoura, was tried and sentenced to hang on charges of carrying out a "terrorist act."
Officials said Jaaoura, a father of five, acted alone to avenge two brothers who were killed in an Israeli attack during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
In December 2006, a Dutch tourist was shot and slightly wounded by armed robbers in northern Jordan. Three Jordanians were later arrested in connection with the incident.
True enough. But we can deduce the fact that the attacker is muslim from the fact that he prefers to attack someone relatively defenseless who has never done anything to him.
The attacker assumed that because the stranger was speaking a foreign language he must be American, and so attacked him.
Why would anyone visit Amman, which like every other capital in that region, is a toilet.
I found Amman to be pretty boring.
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