Officials in Jordan on Saturday arrested a number of senior officials and a member of the royal family, state news, in what appears to have been a failed coup attempt.
There were also unconfirmed reports that the former Crown Prince was under house arrest.
The announcement was made by the state agency Petra News, citing an unidentified official who said that Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a member of the royal family, and Bassem Awadallah, a prominent officer who once headed the Royal Court, were arrested “for security reasons” along with “others” after “close monitoring”
“An investigation into the matter is underway,” said the source.
The news comes as a shock to the desert kingdom, a close regional ally to the United States often praised for its stability in a neighborhood in crisis.
Observers and social media activists said the network also took Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, who was once the crown prince and half brother of King Abdullah II of Jordan. The monarch replaced him with his eldest son, Hussein, who was four years in his government.
A force of 20 vehicles reportedly raided Hamzah’s home in a West Amman suburb, placed under house arrest and detained members of his security group, according to unconfirmed reports on social media.
His office chief, Yasser Majali, was arrested after a heavily armed force broke into his relative’s home, according to Basma Al Majali, a family member who wrote about the incident on Twitter. “Communication with them was lost more than three hours ago,” she tweeted.
Al Mamlaka News, a state-funded news broadcaster, denied that Prince Hamzah was arrested.
The 59-year-old king of Jordan came to power after his father’s death in 1999. Since then, he has been an important ally of the United States, often allowing American troops to conduct operations on Jordanian territory and participate in the anti-state campaign. Islamic.