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Militant Uprising Quelled at Jordanian Prison

(New York Times) Hassan M. Fattah - Jordanian security forces stormed a high security prison outside Amman on Thursday, quashing a daylong uprising by Islamist prisoners and leaving one inmate dead and more than 35 guards and inmates wounded. It was the second such riot in Jordan in less than two months, adding to rising concerns that the growing Islamist population within prisons is organizing and giving al-Qaeda a new avenue for control. Arab prisons have become recruitment centers where al-Qaeda is building its ranks, said Hassan Abu Hanieh, who studies militant movements in Amman. As governments have cracked down on Islamists, the militants have flooded into prisons and become a much more powerful part of the population there. "The authorities have a problem:...if they combine them with other prisoners, they will recruit; but if they leave them together, they will only solidify their networks," said Faris Breizat, an analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies at Jordan University.
2006-04-14 00:00:00
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