Jordan is forming a special task force to deal with possible threats from the Islamic State jihadist organization within the country, according to a senior government official.

King Abdullah II has tapped Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour to head the committee, the official told Arabic daily Al-Hayat Saturday. IS has captured vast territories in neighboring Iraq and Syria, and some believe the Hashemite Kingdom may be its next target.

The news came on the heels of a report by newspaper a-Sharq al-Awsat Thursday that Jordanian security forces had arrested 71 radical activists belonging to Islamist organizations, including IS and Syria’s al-Nusra Front faction, throughout the kingdom.

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Abdullah II attended a NATO summit of Western leaders Thursday and Friday which was heavily focused on the threat of the Islamic State. At the summit, the US and key allies agreed that the Islamic State group was a significant threat to NATO countries and that they would take on the militants by squeezing their financial resources and going after them with military might.

However, a group of Jordanian deputies demanded Wednesday that the kingdom stay out of any war against Islamic State jihadists.

Twenty-one MPs, who represent various factions in the 150-seat parliament, sent a memorandum to speaker Atef al-Tarawneh demanding “the government not involve Jordan (in the fight) against the Islamic State.”

“This war is not our war. Accordingly, we reject categorically any Jordanian contribution in a battle that is not ours,” they said in the document seen by AFP.

“We do not want to be dragged into an international coalition,” said Khalil Attia, one of the deputies who signed the memorandum.

Despite its relative stability, Jordan has faced growing tensions on the homefront with a million Syrian refugees currently residing within its borders and, experts say, a growing movement of jihadists and ultraconservative Salafis. Hundreds of Jordanians are known to have traveled to Syria to fight in the uprising against President Bashar Assad. Some have joined extremist groups, including IS.

A video posted online in April depicted a number of Jordanian IS fighters, including a child, tearing up their passports and threatening to assassinate the “tyrant,” referring to the king.

Extremists have also targeted Jordan in the past. The Islamic State’s precursor, known as al-Qaeda in Iraq, was founded by a Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Under his leadership, the group carried out a triple bombing on Amman hotels in 2005 that killed more than 50 people.

Wary of the possible threats Jordan has taken steps to shore up its defenses, dispatching reinforcements to its border with Iraq and expanding anti-terror laws in June.

Elhanan Miller, Avi Issacharoff, AFP and AP contributed to this report.