Jordan investigating attacks that killed 10, including a Newfoundland woman

The people who staged attacks in Jordan's southern city of Karakthat killed a Canadian woman had suicide vests and other weaponsand were planning other attacks, Interior Minister Salamah Hamad said on Monday.

"This was a big terrorist operation but we are still in the stage of followup of information that relates to it," Hamad told a news conference on Monday.

He gave no details on the identity or nationality of the attackers, saying investigations were continuing and disclosing details at this stage could hamper national security. There has been no claim of responsibility for the shootings

Jordanian security forces said late on Sunday they had killed four "terrorist outlaws" after flushing them out of a Crusader castle in the southern city of Karak. They had holed up there after killing 10 people, including Newfoundland visitor LindaVatcher, a 62-year-old retired teacher originally fromBurgeo, N.L.

• 'A wonderful person:' Linda Vatcher remembered

Vatcherwas in Jordan to visit her son, Christopher, when gunmen struck multiple locations inKarak, Jordan, on Sunday.ChristoperVatcher, who works in the Middle East, was shot and injured in the attack.

MichaelLuedee, who was the principal at the Corner Brook, N.L., elementary school whereVatchertaught,calledher"a fantastic, empathetic and compassionate individual.

"If you had a troubled child that came to the school, either from a transfer or into a grade level, LindaVatcherwas always one that you could count on,"he told CBC N.L.

The secrecy around the culprits, and whether they belonged to any militant group, has raised speculation from politicians and diplomats they could have been tribal outlaws with a grievance against the state rather than ISIS fighters, who control parts of neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

Sunday's events began when a police patrol received reports of a house fire in thetown of Qatranehin the Karak district. Officers responding to the call came under fire from inside the house, officials said. Two policemen were wounded and the assailants fled in a car to Karak.

Tourists from Canada, Britain and Malaysia were hiding inside a Crusader castle during armed clashes between Jordan troops and gunmen at the site,Hamad said.

The security forces were able to release about 10 tourists. At least 30 people were hospitalized, some with serious injuries.

Jordanian troops with armoured vehicles on Monday blocked access to the Crusader castle following the attacks, which are the latest series of assaults over the past year that challenged the pro-Western kingdom's claim tobe an oasis of calm in a region increasingly threatened by Islamic extremists

The violence was likely to further harm Jordan's battered tourism industry, on the decline since militants from ISIS seized control of parts of neighbouring Iraq and Syria two years ago.