A senior Jordanian police officer was killed on Thursday in clashes with demonstrators in the southern city of Maan during protests over high fuel prices that spread to several cities across the kingdom, police said, according to the Reuters news agency.
In a statement, police said the officer was shot in the head while dealing with "rioting" by a group of outlaws in the city.
A police source had earlier said the officer was shot by unknown assailants during clashes in the Husseiniya area of Maan. Four other policemen were injured, the source said, according to Reuters.
The US embassy issued a security alert saying that US government personnel had been restricted from both personal and official travel to southern Jordan, the report said.
Tensions have been mounting in Maan and several cities in southern Jordan after days of sporadic strikes by lorry drivers in protest at high fuel prices.
The government has promised to look into the strikers' demands but has said it already has paid over 500 million dinars to cap fuel price hikes this year.
Anger with the authorities over worsening living standards, corruption and high fuel prices has in the past triggered civil unrest in Jordan.
In 2018, King Abdullah replaced his Prime Minister amid widespread anger over economic policies that sparked the largest protests in the kingdom in several years.
He later said that Jordan was at a crossroads and that a new way was needed to address challenges.
Jordan's main political opposition in recent years has come from the Muslim Brotherhood movement but it faces increasing legal curbs on its activities, leaving mostly pro-monarchy parties and some independent Islamists and politicians to compete in these elections, political analysts say.
In December of 2014, one of the top members of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood was charged with "souring ties with a foreign country" by criticizing the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
At the same time, compared with the tough crackdowns on Islamist groups in Egypt and Gulf countries, Jordanian authorities have been relatively tolerant of the Brotherhood's presence.
The Brotherhood wants sweeping political reforms but stops short of demanding the overthrow of the monarchy in Jordan.