At Least 8 Stabbed in Jerash, Jordan

At least eight people, many of them tourists, were wounded in a knife attack in the city of Jerash in Jordan on Wednesday, according to a Jordanian security spokesman and the Jordanian media. The spokesman added that the attacker was arrested shortly after the violent incident. “Around noon, a man attacked tourists, a tour guide and a security officer who tried to stop him in Jerash,” a popular attraction 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the capital, Amman, a spokesman for Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said in a statement. The wounded were transported to hospital in Amman for treatment and the assailant was immediately arrested, he added. Jordanian media reports that one Swiss and three Mexican citizens, as well as the group’s guide and a security guard, were among the wounded. It is not the first time tourist sites have been targeted by attacks in Jordan. In December 2016, at Kerak, home to one of the region’s largest Crusader castles, 10 people were killed in an attack that also left 30 wounded. Responsibility for the Kerak attack was claimed by the Islamic State group. Ten people were ultimately found guilty for carrying out the attack.