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Sunday, November 24, 2024  
22 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446  

Two Jordanian peacekeepers killed in Haiti

Two Jordanian peacekeepers killed in HaitiGunmen in Haiti killed two Jordanian UN peacekeepers on Saturday, according to the United Nations mission here.
Lieutenant Ahmed Mohamed and Corporal Rame Waff were shot dead near the airport while returning to their base, according to the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
"The first soldier died on the scene, while the other succumbed to his injuries in the hospital," MINUSTAH spokesman Jean Jacques Simon told AFP.
The UN mission extended its condolences to the families of the slain men and to their country.
Meanwhile, Amman said it would be undeterred by the killings.
"The Jordanian government, which deplores the death of the two martyrs, will continue to assume its humanitarian role in restoring world peace and security," a Jordanian official told the official Petra news agency.
A 7,500-strong UN peacekeeping force was sent to Haiti to maintain order after the February 2004 ouster of president Jean Bertrand Aristide.
Jordan has around 1,497 soldiers in the force, half of whom are deployed around the violence-wracked shantytown of Cite Soleil in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
At least six Jordanian soldiers have been killed in the Caribbean nation since they were deployed in March 2004.
Last month, thousands of Haitians protested in the streets of Cite Soleil, demanding the withdrawal of UN forces.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006