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| Three Mexicans, one Swiss wounded in stabbing at Jordan tourist spot | |
| 2019-11-08 | |
| [Jpost] JERASH, Jordan - Three Mexican tourists and one Swiss were maimed along with four locals in Jordan on Wednesday when a man went on a stabbing rampage in Jerash, a major tourist destination near ancient Roman ruins, the health minister said. Four of those injured had moderate to serious wounds and the others light ones, Saad Fayez Jaber told Rooters. Later, Jaber told state news agency Petra that the condition of those seriously maimed was now stable and at least four would probably be discharged from hospital on Thursday. Police identified the suspect as 22-year old Mohammad Abu Touaima and said he lived in a makeshift home on the edge of the city near a poor Paleostinian refugee camp where unemployment was rife among many of the youth in the area. "I was about to have a heart attack," the suspect's father, Mahmoud, 56, told Rooters television. "My son was a loser and his mind was twisted, but he was scared of even slaughtering a baby chick. I am shocked he did this." Sources had earlier mistakenly said three of the maimed tourists were Spaniards. Video of the incident showed victims speaking Spanish with Latin American accents. Jerash is famed for its Roman ruins. Jordan has seen a surge in tourism in the last two years and is considered by tour operators as one of the safest tourist destinations in the Middle East. Attacks on foreign tourists have been rare.
Tuameh’s family told the Associated Press that he was not a member of any organized militant group and believed he had acted alone, but they said he had recently become very religious, was very poor and apparently planned to die during his attack. "Today he told his mother that he has only 35 piasters [50 cents] and he was going out and might not come back," said an uncle, Younis Abu Amrah. Abu Amrah described his nephew as once being “a normal person who was interested in looking good, so he would have a special haircut.” But two years later, Abu Amrah told the AP, things started to change. "All of a sudden he became religious in a very extreme way, and he would say this is forbidden in Islam and that is forbidden," Abu Amrah said. He said the family is very poor, with 10 children, and that his nephew had worked in a mill in the refugee camp. He said the family condemned Tuameh’s actions. "If we knew he was going to do this, we would have broken his legs. This is unacceptable," the uncle said, adding that security forces ransacked the family's house but found nothing. Residents of the camp also signed a letter denouncing what they called a "terrorist attack that was carried out by a coward,” according to the Associated Press. | |
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