Two Americans, several others killed in Jordan

The shooter opened fire at a US-funded academy for security forces, killing two Americans, a South African, and three Jordanians, as well as wounding several others, officials said Monday.

"The shooter was killed at the scene," Dana Zureikat Daoud, the director of the Jordan Information Bureau at Jordan's embassy in Washington, said in a statement.

The unidentified Jordanian officer had worked as a senior co-trainer and had earned the rank of captain. He was reportedly shot dead by his colleagues, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani said.

President Barack Obama said the US was taking the attack "very seriously," and that American officials would be working with Jordan to conduct a full investigation.

Traning for Palestinians and Iraqis

The two Americans were part of a State Department police training program, a US official told the AP news agency.

The shooting took place at the police training center in Muaqar on the eastern outskirts of the capital Amman that trains Palestinian and Iraqi security forces.

There has been no word on possible motives for the attack. In recent years, the Jordanian kingdom has taken on a high-profile role in the fight against extremists, including the so-called "Islamic State" militant group, which controls large areas of neighboring Iraq and Syria.

There has been concern that militants could carry out revenge attacks on Jordanian soil.

The Monday killing spree fell on the 10th anniversary of the deadliest terror attacks in Jordan's history, with suicide bombers killing 60 people in three luxury Amman hotels.

jar/kms (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)