Jordanian authorities have nab-bed several more suspected terrorists and seized two cars filled with explosives, the state television reported on Saturday, marking the latest arrests involving a militant cell believed linked to al-Qaeda that targeted public institutions and the US Embassy.
Jordan Television, quoting an unnamed security source, carried a vaguely worded statement that said authorities were able to "foil the subversive and terrorist attempts which targeted the security and safety of the country."
It said the two cars, which authorities had previously announced were at large, had been seized with the explosives and weapons inside them.
Security officials said that initial information indicated that more than two vehicles -- possibly as many as four -- had been seized. They declined to provide other details, but said the vehicles -- containing weapons, explosives and raw material that could be used in bomb making -- were apprehended in sweeps of Nuaimeh and Huwarah, villages outside Irbid, 90km north of the Jordanian capital Amman.
The statement reassured citizens that the security situation was "under control" and suggested that the police sweep remained under way. "Security forces ... are still completing the operation," it said.
The government said on March 31 days ago that several terror suspects were detained when their vehicle, filled with explosives and detonators, was nabbed in a Jordanian town near the Syrian border. It said three other suspects in two other cars remained at large and that search was under way to apprehend them.
The suspects detained last week have confessed to plotting a series of attacks in the moderate kingdom, the Jordanian officials have said.
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