Jordan King's Motorcade 'Attacked in Southern City'

The motorcade of Jordan's king came under a rare stoning attack in the south on Monday, a security official said in comments denied by both the palace and government a day after the monarch vowed to enhance reforms.

"(The rear) part of King Abdullah II's motorcade was attacked with stones and empty bottles by a group of men in their 20s and 30s after the king's car entered (the southern city) Tafileh," the official said of Monday's royal visit.

"Nobody was hurt and the motorcade changed its route."

He added, without elaborating, that police "tackled the infiltrators and made arrests."

A palace source confirmed that members of the Royal Guard who accompanied the king were not hurt, but the royal court and the government denied the incident.

"It is absolutely groundless. Footage taken during the visit to Tafileh proves that," a court official told Agence France Presse.

And government spokesman Taher Adwan said "the motorcade of his majesty the king was not attacked," telling the state-run Petra news agency that the "visit to Tafileh was successful."

"All that happened was a quarrel between police and people who wanted to greet the king," who ordered several multi-million-dollar development projects in the city, Adwan said.

Another security source told AFP that "around 60 people hurled stones at police, injuring 25 of them including one seriously, because they were not invited to meet the king."

A group calling itself the "Freemen of Tafileh" accused security forces of preventing them from seeing the monarch.

"Those who do not represent the people of Tafileh have been chosen to sit with the king," it said. "We have been marginalized in a provocative step that shows how security apparatuses control the people."

Just like other Jordanians, people in Tafileh, 179 kilometers south of Amman, have been protesting for several weeks to demand reforms, effective measures to fight corruption and the ouster of the government.

They intercepted the motorcade of Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit in May and tried to prevent him from visiting the city.

Monday's developments came a day after the king vowed to enhance political and socio-economic reform and promised a new electoral law leading to a parliamentary government, in a bid to face popular discontent and pressing demands for change.

In his first televised address since pro-reform protests started in January, the king pledged a new electoral law he said would result in "a parliament with active political-party representation... that allows the formation of governments based on parliamentary majority... in the future."

But the powerful Islamic Action Front (IAF), which wants an elected premier rather than one named by the king, was skeptical about the monarch's pledges.

"The king has expressed hopes, as we have heard several times in the past, but he did not give specifics and there were no guarantees," Zaki Bani Rsheid, head of the IAF's political office, told AFP.

"The king has repeatedly complained that successive governments did not implement his reform vision. Why would we be confident that things would be different this time?"

A national dialogue committee has proposed new legislation on elections and parties, but its proposals have been criticized by the Islamists and conservatives as not ensuring a fair representation.

"We seek a state of democracy, pluralism and participation through political reforms... away from the dictates of the street and the absence of the voice of reason," the king said in his speech.