Syria Arms Sale Suspect Death in Jordan Jail Sparks Anger

Residents of a border town went on an overnight rampage after a Jordanian, who allegedly helped two Syrians buy arms, died in detention, police said on Thursday.

Angry protesters in Ramtha, a town north of Amman and near the border with Syria, set fire to the governor's offices, the courthouse and a police car before a riot squad broke up the demonstration using tear gas.

"Order was restored on Thursday at dawn," police spokesman Mohammed Khatib told Agence France Presse, adding that the unrest started after relatives of Najem Zuhbi, 20, rejected claims that the young man had committed suicide while in detention.

"Najem hanged himself with his bedding. We don't know what pushed him to do it," he said. "When informed of his death, his family didn't believe the suicide account and staged a violent protest in the town of Ramtha."

His body bore no traces of violence, a source familiar with the results of an autopsy, told AFP.

A Jordanian official, on condition of anonymity, said: "Najem took two Syrians, who had arrived in Jordan a few days earlier, to an arms dealer.

"The Syrians, who were under surveillance by the military, were arrested along with Najem."

Several residents of Ramtha, which lies across the border from the restive Syrian city of Daraa, often smuggle clothes, food and other goods across the frontier.

But border controls have been stepped up since the outbreak of a deadly anti-regime revolt in Syria in March.