Three people were killed and scores injured in clashes in the southern Jordanian city of Maan after a major security sweep to round up Islamist activists ahead of a possible war in Iraq, witnesses and officials said. Witnesses said heavy gunfire broke out at dawn between hundreds of masked armed youths and police after security forces stormed the city, allegedly to search for Muslim militants linked to the killing of a U.S. diplomat two weeks ago.

The official Petra news agency quoted an official source as saying three people had died, two gunmen "who had opened fire at security forces" and one policeman. It said another policeman was seriously wounded.

Witnesses said scores of people were wounded by gunfire and rushed to hospital.

Speaking on state television, Interior Minister Qaftan al-Majali accused "armed outlaw groups" of being behind the clashes, and said people from other Arab countries were among those arrested with ammunition and automatic weapons in their possession. He did not elaborate.

Maan is a traditional stronghold of Islamic militants. Known as a trouble spot, it has been the scene of pro-Iraq demonstrations and in years past, violent civil unrest.

The clashes intensified as special forces conducted house-to-house searches for arms and detained around 30 wanted people, mostly Islamists.

Witnesses said the fiercest fighting took place in the city's main commercial Palestine Street and near a government hospital.

One official said the authorities' crackdown was aimed at putting behind bars those who might foment unrest or carry out sabotage in the event of a U.S. war against Iraq.

"The security operation mounted in Maan is a precautionary step to ensure the situation on the ground does not get out of hand in the event of war," he told Reuters.

Islamist groups criticized the operation.

The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the country's largest political party, issued a statement warning the government not to risk "an escalation in the situation and widening of its repercussions" that could endanger national security at a time of looming war.

The powerful mainstream Muslim Brotherhood urged the government to refrain from heavy-handed methods to restore order in the city in its drive to detain suspects.

Separately, the Jordanian army killed an infiltrator who tried to throw a bomb at a border patrol on Sunday as he was trying to cross into northern Israel, an army spokesman said.

RISING TENSIONS

Anti-riot police, backed by armored vehicles, took positions inside the city, located 200 miles south of the capital Amman, late on Saturday after armored personnel carriers arrived from the capital to reinforce army troops encircling Maan.

"Heavy gunfire can be heard across the city," said one resident reached by mobile phone.

Jordan is believed to have rounded up close to 100 Islamists already in a nationwide hunt for the gunman who shot dead senior U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley two weeks ago.

It was the first murder of a Western diplomat in Jordan and came amid rising anti-American sentiment in the region, fueled by perceived U.S. bias toward Israel and threats by Washington to wage war on neighboring Iraq.

Jordan, a key U.S. ally wedged between Israel to the west and Iraq to the east, has seen a hefty rise in U.S. military and economic assistance this year as a reward for openly supporting President Bush's war on terrorism.

But a majority of Jordanians are angered by U.S. policies in the region.

Muslim activists and Maan elders said tensions in the city rose further this week after tribal elders rejected authorities' demands that they pressure relatives to hand over around 30 wanted men.

The desert city has been on edge since prominent Muslim fundamentalist leader Mohammad Chalabi, known as Abu Sayaff, was wounded in a shootout with police late last month. Chalabi escaped and was under protection of his supporters in the city.

PHOTO CAPTION

Jordanian police on the streets of downtown Amman