Jordan's military says its air force carried out retaliatory strikes on what it described as "dens of terrorist organizations" in southern Syria. The action follows last week's attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Jordan, which ISIL (ISIS) has claimed.
In a post on X, the Jordanian Armed Forces said Royal Air Force fighter jets destroyed a number of sites in southeastern Syria. It said the operation killed and wounded many members of the groups and destroyed several of their vehicles. A further post said the strikes were coordinated with Damascus. Jordan did not name the locations hit or give casualty figures.
Syria has rejected that account. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Jordan of its "complete reservation" over the strikes, saying they happened "without prior coordination or notification with the Syrian side." A ministry official described the attack to Al Jazeera's Heidi Pett as "treacherous."
Syrian authorities say seven people died, including three children, in Jordanian air attacks on the countryside of Deraa and Suwayda. The Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management said its teams responded at four sites, and the civil defence agency said it recovered the bodies of those killed.
Five members of one family, among them three children and a woman, died when a tent was hit in the village of al-Taff in the Lajat area of northeastern Deraa province. Three other relatives were injured. A strike on a farm in the al-Shayah area near Nassib killed Riyad Karrad, 80. In the town of Shuhayb in northern Suwayda countryside, a strike on a home killed Mutlaq Abu al-Khail, 60, and rescuers were still working to recover his body from the rubble. A strike on a home in Muzayrib in western Deraa countryside caused no reported casualties. Jordan had not immediately responded to the claim that civilians were killed.
Shortly after the strikes, Syrian customs authorities closed the Nassib border crossing with Jordan on Tuesday. It is the only route for passenger and commercial traffic between the two neighbors.
The church attack, which killed nine people during a funeral in Karak governorate, was a rare act of violence against Jordan's Christian minority. Security forces arrested two brothers and their brother-in-law after a shootout. Public security director Major-General Obaidullah al-Maaytah named them as Hazza Zaidan Mohammed, Meshal Zaidan Mohammed and Ahmad Sami Hussein. King Abdullah II ordered security forces to respond with an "iron fist."
Interior Minister Mazin al-Farrayeh said an investigation would examine "all the circumstances that lead young people towards extremism." He added that investigations are continuing and that there are currently no indications of links between the suspects and other cells.
Jordan has carried out repeated air strikes in Syria since 2023, saying it was targeting drug and arms smugglers, and some have hit civilians. After strikes in January 2024 killed women and children, Human Rights Watch called for accountability. Jordan has said its border operations target armed groups carrying narcotics, weapons and explosives that it suspects are linked to Iran-allied groups.
Syria's Foreign Ministry says it is in contact with Jordan to establish the circumstances of the latest operation. Damascus said it will deal with the aftermath while "safeguarding Syria's security and sovereignty."