Jordanian Airstrikes Kill 7 in Southern Syria, Trigger Border Closure and Diplomatic Dispute
By Rizik Alabi/The Media Line
[DARAA, Syria] Jordanian airstrikes on southern Syria killed seven civilians, including three children and a woman, Syrian health authorities said Tuesday, as Damascus denied Jordan’s claim that the operation had been coordinated with its government and closed a major border crossing between the two countries.
The strikes, carried out Monday evening, targeted what Jordan described as terrorist hideouts linked to an October 23 attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Jordan’s Karak Governorate that killed nine people and wounded 34.
The Jordanian Armed Forces announced that the operation, dubbed “Jordanian Deterrence—Hmoud,” was launched in retaliation for the attack on mourners attending a funeral at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in the town of Hmoud.
In an official statement, the Jordanian military said investigations had established links between the church attackers and organizations operating in southern Syria. It said its fighter jets destroyed several positions and pieces of equipment, killing and wounding members of those groups.
The military did not identify the organizations, specify the locations targeted, or disclose evidence connecting them to the perpetrators of the Karak attack. Its claims about casualties among members of the groups could not be independently verified.
Jordan maintained that the operation had been conducted in coordination with the Syrian government.
Damascus disputed that account in a statement issued shortly after midnight Tuesday, saying the strikes had taken place without prior coordination or notification.
The Syrian government confirmed civilian casualties, announced an investigation into the circumstances of the strikes, and said it had opened direct communication channels with Jordanian authorities.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry subsequently said it had conveyed its objections to Amman over military operations conducted on Syrian territory without prior coordination.
The government expressed condolences to the families of those killed and pledged assistance to the wounded, while emphasizing that security operations along the shared border must respect Syrian sovereignty.
In a further development, Syria’s General Authority for Border Crossings and Customs announced the closure of the Nassib crossing with Jordan on Tuesday, suspending passenger and commercial traffic in both directions.
The authority cited security conditions and developments on the ground in Daraa Governorate, saying the suspension was intended to protect travelers and border personnel.
Nassib, known as Jaber on the Jordanian side, is a major commercial and passenger crossing between the two countries.
Providing an initial account of the casualties Monday evening, Daraa’s director of health told The Media Line that five civilians, including women, children, and an elderly man, had been killed in strikes on locations in the governorate’s countryside.
He said a 65-year-old man from the Tariq al-Sad neighborhood of Daraa city had died at Daraa National Hospital after sustaining shrapnel wounds in the bombardment.
Two other people injured in the town of Muzayrib in western Daraa were transferred to Tafas National Hospital for treatment.
In an updated statement early Tuesday, Daraa Health Director Khaled al-Amyan raised the reported death toll to seven, comprising three children, a woman, and three men, one of them elderly. He said three people had been injured, including a child.
The Media Line reported, citing eyewitnesses, that the strikes hit locations in the Daraa and As-Suwayda countryside, including areas around Muzayrib, Nasib, and al-Lajat.
Local field sources also reported strikes on buildings and residential homes. However, The Media Line could not independently establish the nature of all the locations targeted or whether any were being used by armed groups.
The strikes followed the arrest of three suspects in connection with Friday’s church attack in Jordan.
Jordanian security forces apprehended two brothers and their brother-in-law Monday after a confrontation at an abandoned house in Karak Governorate. All three suspects were wounded during the operation, while no security personnel were injured, according to Jordan’s Public Security Directorate.
Authorities recovered firearms and ammunition, but no organization has claimed responsibility for the church attack.
Questions have also emerged over the alleged connections between the suspects and the organizations targeted in Syria.
Speaking at a news conference earlier Monday, Jordanian Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said investigators had found no indication that the suspects were connected to other terrorist cells.
Later that day, the Jordanian military announced that the perpetrators had links to organizations operating in southern Syria, without explaining the basis for that conclusion.
The statements are not necessarily irreconcilable, since investigators could have obtained additional information or distinguished between membership in an organized cell and links to other groups. However, Jordanian authorities have not publicly clarified the apparent difference between the assessments.
The dispute comes against a background of longstanding security challenges along the Jordanian-Syrian border, where smuggling networks and armed groups have complicated efforts to maintain stability.
Jordan has repeatedly emphasized the need to prevent cross-border security threats, while Syrian authorities have insisted that military operations on their territory require prior coordination.
The latest strikes have placed those competing concerns in sharper focus. The civilian deaths, Syria’s closure of the Nassib crossing, and the conflicting accounts of military coordination have created an immediate diplomatic challenge for Amman and Damascus.
Investigations must still establish the identities and affiliations of those targeted, the circumstances in which civilians were killed, and whether Jordanian and Syrian authorities can agree on arrangements to prevent further incidents along their shared border.
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