Jordan announced on Tuesday that it had arrested several Palestinian Hamas activists suspected of planning terror attacks in the country.

Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Judeh said that the Hamas activists had received orders from a leader in Syria to carry out attacks against Jordanian officials and the plot was in its final stage when it was foiled.

"Security forces foiled attacks against officials and strategic points in Jordan that were planned by elements of Hamas and which were in the final stages of execution," Judeh said, without specifying the number of the arrests nor when the arrests were conducted.

The spokesman said on April 19 that Jordanian security services uncovered weapons and highly combustible explosives, which were smuggled from a secret Hamas arms cache in Syria, which led to a postponement of a visit by Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar due last Wednesday.

However, Hamas leaders strongly denied the charges made by the Jordanian government, citing that "the struggle of Hamas was and remains against the occupation of our land. We reject the decision of the government of Jordan and we condemn it."

Judeh also said on Tuesday that the Jordanian security apparatus found quantities of weapons in a village north of Jordan for possible attacks inside Jordan.

"The security apparatus seized weapons, TNT explosives, T4 and missiles to target some foundations and a number of officials in Jordan," he said.

Source: Xinhua