‘Suspect in anti-narcotics agent murder dies after police pursuit’

AMMAN — Police on Saturday announced the death of a man suspected of killing an Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) agent in an ambush last month.

Corporal Mohammad Atta Salaymeh of AND died of wounds he sustained in a shoot-out with suspected drug dealers while on duty in an area in Maan’s Rashediyeh area, some 220km south of Amman, on September 19.

On Saturday, the Public Security Department (PSD) quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying that one of the suspects in Salaymeh’s slaying was shot in the south, during a pursuit that led to a heavy exchange of gunfire.

“A special team followed up on the suspects who reportedly shot and killed our martyr on duty and located them in a rough area in Wadi Rum,” a PSD statement said.

When one of the units approached the suspects to arrest them, the statement added, “they responded with heavy fire from automatic rifles.”

“The units responded and engaged with the suspects, who fled in vehicles and could not be pursued further because it was rough and dark,” according to the PSD statement.

 Two hours later, the statement added, police received a call that “one of the vehicles dropped one of its passengers near a health centre,” where he was pronounced dead.

“The deceased passenger was one of the main suspects in the case of Salaymeh,” the statement noted.

No police were injured during the pursuit and “measures are being taken to arrest everyone involved in the death of Salaymeh,” the statement said.