2 Americans killed, 1 injured in shooting at police training center in Jordan

(ABC News) — Two U.S. contractors were killed and another was injured in a shooting incident today at a police training center in Jordan involving a fired Jordanian police officer, according to a U.S. official.

The official said the shooter took his own life after the shootings.

Video courtesy of ABC News

The shootings took place at the Jordan International Police Training Center just outside of Amman. The facility is manned by a mix of international security trainers, all contractors, who provide training to Jordanian security forces.

Another U.S. official said the contractors were instructors at the facility.

Though details were sketchy, a U.S. official said the shooter was not one of the current students at the center, but a policeman who had been recently fired.

Earlier Petra, Jordan’s news agency, reported that three contractors with the Public Security Department, including two Americans, and a South African, were killed in the attack, citing Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani. The report also said four other training contractors had been injured in the attack.

Momani told the agency an investigation is underway to determine the motives behind the attack.

“We have received reports about a security incident at Jordan International Police Training Center,” according to a statement released earlier by the U.S. Embassy in Jordan.

“We are in contact with the appropriate Jordanian authorities, who have offered their full support. We will report more information when available and appropriate.”

A U.S. defense official said the shooting did not affect U.S. military personnel based in Jordan. The U.S. military has a presence inside Jordan including a detachment of fighter aircraft to strike at ISIS, as well as a headquarters unit to assist Jordan with humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugees.

That military presence has numbered in the past as many as 1,000, though the Pentagon does not officially state the size of the U.S. military contingent in Jordan.

The United States helped establish the Joint International Police Training Center in 2004 primarily as a facility to train Iraqi police.

It is located in Muwaqqar, 20 miles east of Amman. It is believed that as many as 50,000 Iraqi policemen underwent training at the facility from 2003 to 2007.

It was also used to train several thousand Palestinian security forces as part of a security arrangement negotiated by the United States.