Jordan said on Monday it had foiled an Islamic State plot that included plans to carry out a series of attacks last November on security installations, shopping malls and moderate religious figures, state news agency Petra reported.
The report said the country's intelligence department had arrested 17 members of a cell and confiscated weapons and explosives that the militant group had planned to use in several operations.
"The members of the cell had planned to execute a number of terrorist attacks simultaneously to destabilize national security and sow chaos and terror among civilians," the statement said.
A security source said members of the cell had been under surveillance as they were spotted surveying high-profile potential civilian and military targets.
Jordanian security forces have been extra vigilant in recent months, as intelligence reports have warned that Islamic State sympathizers could launch revenge attacks after the terrorist group was driven out of most of the territory it previously controlled in Syria and Iraq.
The suspects, all from the working-class city of Zarqa east of the capital, were being interrogated and will face trial in a military court, authorities said. The trial date has yet to be set.
Zarqa is considered a hotbed of fundamentalist jihadists. Dozens of youths there have been influenced by hardline Islamist ideology and joined radical groups in Iraq and Syria in recent years, according to security sources.
Local media reported that the cell had planned to wage a series of bank robberies and car thefts to obtain funds, and manufactured homemade explosives from material bought from local markets.
Operatives affiliated with al-Qaida and other radical jihadist groups have long targeted the U.S.-allied kingdom, and dozens of terrorists are currently serving long prison terms.
King Abdullah, an ally of Western powers against Islamist radicalism who has also safeguarded Jordan's 1994 peace treaty with Israel, has been among the most vocal leaders in the region in warning of threats posed by radical groups.
Jordan plays a prominent role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, providing military, logistical and intelligence support, according to Western diplomats and regional intelligence sources.
Several incidents over the past few years have jolted the kingdom, which has been comparatively unscathed by the uprisings, civil wars and Islamist militancy that have swept the Middle East since 2011.
In the last major incident, in December 2016, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a shootout at a Crusader castle in the southern city of Karak in which 10 people, including a Canadian tourist, were killed.
