Jordan's air force struck militant hideouts in southern Syria on Monday in retaliation for the deadly church attack in Karak, and Syria responded by closing the Nassib border crossing, the two countries' only passenger and commercial crossing.
Jordanian warplanes struck what the kingdom's armed forces described as militant hideouts in southern Syria on Monday, days after gunmen attacked a church funeral in Karak that killed nine people. Jordan said the suspects behind the church attack were linked to terrorist groups operating across the border, and that its strikes killed and wounded members of those groups and destroyed several of their vehicles.
The operation hit four sites in the countryside of Daraa and Sweida provinces, according to Syria's Civil Defence, which reported in a preliminary account that seven people were killed, including three children and a woman, and three others were wounded. A Syrian health official gave a lower toll, telling the state news agency that five civilians, including women and children, had been killed. Jordan has not publicly commented on the casualty reports.
The two governments publicly disagreed about how the strikes were arranged. Jordan's armed forces said the operation was carried out in coordination with Damascus. Syria's government said it had opened an investigation into the attacks, and its foreign ministry said Damascus had registered its complete reservation over strikes carried out without prior coordination, stressing the importance of joint field and security coordination in border areas.
The casualty figures and the coordination question remain unresolved in the reporting so far: the Civil Defence's preliminary count of seven dead differs from the health official's five, and Jordan has named no specific group it says it targeted. What is established is that the strikes followed the church attack, that Syria disputes Jordan's account of coordination, and that no Jordanian statement on civilian casualties has been reported.
Hours after the strikes, Syria's border authority closed the Nassib crossing with Jordan on Tuesday, suspending passenger and commercial traffic in both directions and citing developments on the ground in Daraa province. Nassib is the only crossing between Jordan and Syria that handles both passenger and cargo traffic, so its closure cuts the neighbours' main overland link.
The stakes run beyond the border post. Earlier on Monday, Jordanian security forces arrested two brothers and their brother-in-law in the village of al-Jadeeda after a three-hour shootout, identifying them as suspects in the church attack. King Abdullah II had already ordered security forces to respond with an iron fist. The next test is whether Syria's investigation and Jordan's account converge, and how long the crossing stays shut.