Photo: Noah Wulf, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons
Jordan's air force struck what it described as militant hideouts in southern Syria on Monday evening, and Syria closed its only passenger and commercial border crossing with Jordan on Tuesday morning, in a rapid escalation after a deadly attack on a church in Jordan last week.
Jordan said the strikes targeted "terrorist organisations" in southeastern Syria linked to the gun attack on mourners at a funeral at Saint George's Church in Karak on Friday, October 23, in which nine people were killed and dozens wounded. The Jordanian military said the operation killed and wounded several members of those groups and destroyed a number of their vehicles.
Syria's Civil Defence said seven people were killed in the strikes: five members of one family — a man, a woman and three children — when a tent was hit in the village of Al Tai in Daraa province; an 80-year-old man in Al Shayyah, also in Daraa; and a 60-year-old man in Shahba in Suweida province. Three other people, including a child, were wounded. Early casualty reports varied, with some outlets citing six or eight dead; the Civil Defence figure of seven is the latest reported.
A dispute over coordination
The two neighbours disagree sharply on whether the operation was coordinated. Jordan's armed forces said the strikes were carried out in coordination with the Syrian government. Syria denied that, saying the operation was conducted without prior coordination or notification, and said it had launched an investigation. Syria's foreign ministry said it had conveyed its "complete reservation" to Jordan over the strikes, and a ministry official described them to Al Jazeera as a "treacherous attack."
Border crossing closed
Shortly after the strikes, Syria's General Authority for Border Crossings and Customs announced the closure of the Nassib crossing, known as Jaber on the Jordanian side, suspending passenger and commercial traffic in both directions. The authority cited developments on the ground in Daraa province and gave no date for reopening. Nassib is the only crossing between Jordan and Syria that handles both passengers and commercial goods, making it a key overland trade route for the region.
The church attack that triggered the strikes
Earlier on Monday, Jordanian security forces arrested two brothers and their brother-in-law in the village of al-Jadeeda in Karak governorate after a shootout that lasted about three hours. The three men are suspects in the October 23 church attack, and Jordanian officials said they sustained serious injuries in the confrontation. Such violence is rare in Jordan, a relatively stable US ally in the Middle East, and Friday's attack on the Christian minority prompted King Abdullah to order security forces to respond with an "iron fist."
What happens next
The immediate questions are whether the Nassib crossing reopens, what Syria's investigation concludes, and whether the coordination dispute hardens into a wider diplomatic rift between the two neighbours. For now, the border is shut, the casualty count is still being updated, and both governments are holding to conflicting accounts of how Monday's strikes came about.
Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera, The Times of Israel, Moneycontrol, Shafaq News