Armed bandits were reported roaming the cities and highways of Jordan looting and assaulting people at will today in the wake of Friday’s air and artillery duels along the Israel-Jordan demarcation line. Jordanian Army and police units appeared unwilling, or unable, to intervene, according to reports reaching here.
The United States Embassy in Amman has asked Jordanian authorities to take measures to protect American citizens. Several have been stopped at gunpoint in Amman streets or waylaid in their hotels or homes by armed men demanding cash “contributions” for the El Fatah terror gangs. British nationals and visitors from the West Bank have also been assaulted. Commerce between the East and West banks of the Jordan came to a halt on Friday as hundreds of West Bankers poured over the Allenby Bridge to return to their homes in Samaria and Judaea, The eastward movement of people, usually heavy on weekends, was virtually at a standstill. Taxi drivers on the West Bank refused to take passengers into Jordan for fear of being stopped and beaten by hoodlums on the roads.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
