Protesters raise fears in Jordan

Islamic State stirs support in south

MAAN, Jordan -- Demonstrators angry with Jordan's government have unfurled the black battle flags of the militants now in control of large swaths of Iraq, stirring fears that support for the group is growing in Jordan.



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At two rallies in Maan last week, scores of young men raised their fists, waved homemade banners bearing the logo and inscriptions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and shouted, "Down, down with Abdullah," the king of Jordan. Abdullah II, a close U.S. ally, is widely viewed as a moderate in a country considered an oasis of stability in the Middle East.

The demonstrations have been the first public displays of support for the Islamic State in Jordan.

Abdullah's government has put the country's Border Guard on alert, reinforced troops along its 125-mile frontier with Iraq and added tanks and armor to thwart any move into Jordan by the militants, who along with other Sunni insurgents have seized a string of cities from northern Syria to western Iraq.

The Amman government is concerned by signs that support for the group may be expanding in Jordan and that homegrown recruits could take action in the country, according to former military officers, security analysts and members of Jordan's jihadist movement.

"We no longer trust or respect the government and have been searching for an alternative that ensures our basic rights," said Mohammed Kreishan, one of the marchers. "In the Islamic State, we have found our alternative."

Last week, anti-government demonstrators gathered at the mosque in central Maan and marched toward the courthouse with gasoline bombs, but they were deterred by the presence of Jordanian riot police in armored personnel carriers.

A symbol of Jordan's monarchy and central government, the charred and bullet-riddled courthouse has been the scene of near-nightly gunfire in recent weeks. Islamic State banners were briefly raised on the mosque's roof and still fly from flagpoles at traffic circles.

Maan is an impoverished regional center 150 miles south of Amman. The official unemployment rate in Maan tops 25 percent and is far higher among its youth. One of the largest employers is a state cement factory.

Maan has been a crucible for anti-government activists for a generation and today is home to leading al-Qaida clerics, who themselves fear that the younger generation may no longer listen to the Salafist old guard but instead run off and join newer, more extreme groups such as the Islamic State.

Security analysts estimate that about 2,000 Jordanians are fighting in Syria and Iraq today, at least half of them with the Islamic State.

Reports earlier this month suggested that Islamic State forces had taken the key Iraqi-Jordanian border crossing at Turaibil, but Jordanian military said Sunni tribes now control the area since the Iraqi military left after clashes with the Islamic State. Border traffic is lighter than normal but flowing, witnesses said.

Secretary of State John Kerry met with Jordan's foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, in Paris this week to discuss a regional response to the Islamic State threat.

"I am worried, but I am not scared" of the group's recent success in Iraq spilling over into Jordan, said Mohammad Farghal, director general of the Center for Strategic Studies at the King Abdullah II Defense Academy and a retired major general in Jordan's armed forces.

"We are quite confident when it comes to securing the border," Farghal said. What is worrying, he said, "is that poverty and dissatisfaction create fertile ground for extremist organizations in Jordan. This is our greatest security challenge."

A Section on 06/29/2014

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