Jordan Police Arrest 144 as Riots Spread

Hundreds of rioters smashed bank windows, looted buildings and pelted police officers with rocks Friday as riots caused by price increases spread to northern Jordan.

Police arrested 14 people outside Amman and 130 elsewhere around the country, including 70 members of the banned Communist Party in a crackdown on the unrest that has raged for four days and engulfed much of southern Jordan.

Troops banned Muslims from weekly prayers in troubled southern cities in an attempt to prevent more unrest, which has killed eight people.

Hussein Cancels Meeting

In London, the British Foreign Office said King Hussein canceled plans to stop there on his way back to Amman from a visit to the United States.

In the Jordan Valley town of Salt, a city of 100,000 about 12 miles north of Amman, children played inside shattered offices, and hundreds of people milled around on the glass-strewn streets.

“The demonstrators shouted slogans hailing King Hussein, but like their fellow citizens in south Jordan demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Zaid Rifai,” said one witness contacted by telephone.

Demonstrators blame Rifai for the austerity measures and declining living standards. They shouted support for Hussein.

“We are fed up with this government. They have stolen all our money,” said a man in his 60s who refused to give his name. He said demonstrators “trust the king’s leadership, and we know he will respond.”

Riots also occurred Thursday night in the northern towns of Madaba and Taiyiba.

It was the first time disturbances had spread beyond the south since the unrest began Tuesday in the southern city of Maan. The demonstrations came in response to price increase of 10% to 50% on gasoline, cigarettes, heating oil and other commodities.

The increases were imposed Sunday as part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to reschedule Jordan’s $6-billion foreign debt. They came on top of rising unemployment and soaring inflation.