JEDDAH/AMMAN: Saudi Arabia condemned on Tuesday a  “terrorist attack” on a local office of Jordan’s national intelligence agency that killed five employees.  

A spokesman suggested  extremist militants were involved. Late on Monday, a suspect was arrested, said a TV report. 

Such attacks are relatively rare in Jordan, even though the pro-Western kingdom is on the front line in the military campaign against Daesh extremists who control large areas of neighboring Syria and Iraq.

The attack took place before 7 a.m., said government spokesman Mohammed Momani. He didn’t say how the attack was carried out, but suggested those involved were Islamic militants.

He described them as “criminal elements who don’t represent our moderate religion” and who “spilled blood on the first day of Ramadan.”

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The targeted security office is a two-story building facing the Palestinian refugee camp of Baqaa near the Jordanian capital of Amman. The camp has a population of tens of thousands, including many Syrian refugees who have settled there since the start of the Syria conflict in 2011.

A highway separates the security compound and the camp.

Several hours after the attack, the access road to the security compound was closed. Security agents were visible outside the building, including masked members of the counter-terrorism squad.

Momani initially said those killed included three officers in the guard service, a guard and a receptionist. His office later described three of them as non-commissioned officers in the Baqaa intelligence office, along with the guard and receptionist.

Monday’s attack came three months after Jordanian special forces clashed with Daesh-linked gunmen at a hideout in the northern Jordanian city of Irbid.