Observers and Syrian media reported that ten people, including two girls, were killed in airstrikes believed to be Jordanian, in southern Syria early Thursday. Jordanian authorities have not yet issued a comment. The Jordanian military has intensified its campaign against drug traffickers in recent weeks following clashes last month with dozens of individuals—suspected of links to Iranian-backed armed groups—who were carrying large quantities of drugs across its border with Syria, as well as weapons and explosives.
Local radio station Sham FM reported that Jordanian airstrikes targeted two houses in the town of Arman in the Sweida province of southern Syria, resulting in casualties. The Syrian news site Sweida 24, which monitors developments in the province, stated that simultaneous airstrikes hit the town of Arman in the southeastern part of the province bordering Jordan during the night. They noted that the strikes killed two girls, five women, and three men, but did not specify that the strikes were Jordanian.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least nine people were killed in the Jordanian strikes on Sweida, including two girls. Jordan and its Western allies have blamed Hezbollah and other Iran-aligned groups for increasing smuggling operations, as they control most of southern Syria.
Iran and Hezbollah have rejected the accusations, describing them as a Western conspiracy against their ally, Syria, which has also denied involvement in drug production and smuggling. U.S. and other Western drug enforcement officials have stated that war-torn Syria has become a major hub for the billion-dollar drug trade in the region, with Jordan becoming a key transit route for methamphetamine (known as Captagon) produced in Syria to oil-rich Gulf states.
