Two Jordanians convicted for IS embassy attack

Jordan's state security court convicted the two men for having manufactured explosives and plotting attacks on behalf of "a terrorist group".

The two were accused of belonging to the extremist Islamic State group and of planning to carry out bomb attacks in 2016 on the Russian, Iranian and Israeli embassies in Amman.

They were arrested in March 2016.

A suicide bombing in June of that year claimed by IS near a border post with war-torn Syria killed seven Jordanian soldiers.

In recent years, Jordan has upgraded its fight against militants and criminals, in large part with US backing, setting up a national emergency call centre, a network of street surveillance cameras and databases for DNA, ballistics and fingerprints.

The US State Department's expanding Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA) programme has allocated $300 million to train and equip security forces in partner nations - so far 21 out of a pool of 56, with the aim to improve the safety of US diplomats and citizens abroad and to support US allies.

Jordan's importance to Washington was apparent last month when the kingdom was promised $1.275 billion a year in US economic and military aid through 2022, an increase of 27 percent.

Jordan faces domestic and external threats from extremists, even though once powerful IS militants have largely been defeated in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.