(Adds government statement) AMMAN, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A Jordanian al Qaeda-linked militant was killed in a shootout with security forces in the northern city of Irbid on Tuesday, a security source said. "The mukhabarat (intelligence) were able to kill a terrorist belonging to al Qaeda and arrest another in the Mutlaa neighbourhood in Irbid," the state news agency quoted the security source as saying. The source confirmed earlier reports that the authorities had surrounded a location inside the sprawling city where two suspected militants were firing gunshots to resist arrest. They identified the killed militant as Suleiman al-Anjadi , a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, while his accomplice, Ramadan al-Mansi, another Jordanian was now in police custody. Several police officers were lightly wounded. Security sources said the shootout lasted about three hours, ending early in the morning. The security agencies had been monitoring the group who had planned attacks inside Jordan, they added. Jordan's close U.S. ties and its 1994 peace accord with Israel are unpopular with many in the conservative kingdom and there is strong support for Islamist militants in some areas. Jordanian officials say several hundred militants with links to other radical Arab groups have entered Iraq via Jordan and Syria since the U.S. invasion.
