Jordanian Minister of Interior Hussaein al-Majaly and two Jordanian police chiefs resigned over the weekend, and for the first time in a long time, people in the southern city of Ma'an were celebrating.
In past headlines, Ma'an's been described as a hotbed of terrorism, with some young men hopping across the border to Syria to join the ranks of al Qaeda and Daesh. That, coupled with frequent demonstrations against the Jordanian government, make the deeply impoverished city somewhat of a black sheep in the Hashemite Kingdom.
But the streets looked a lot different on Sunday night and Monday, with residents handing out sweets and shooting off fireworks in celebration of al-Majaly's departure.
Why? The reasons — and Ma'an itself — are of course more complex than what it seems.
With some of the highest unemployment rates in the country and very few government initiatives to get people to work, residents of the tribal city are very often left feeling abandoned by Amman.
So when security forces demolished three homes in the city last week during what they say was a search for susected jihadist, anti-government sentiment was reignited. You can see the images of the home destruction below, via Facebook.
Residents blamed the move on al-Majaly, dubbing it and other actions as unjust police force against Ma'ani people.
Since Daesh released as execution video of Jordanian pilot Muath Kasasbeh in early February, the Jordanian government has ramped up its airstrike campaign against the group in Syria, and imposed heavy crackdowns on potential terror cells inside the country.
Follow @AlBawaba_loop
