The Albany Gazette - Syria condemns deadly Jordan strikes as 'unacceptable violation'

In the worst crisis between the neighbours since the ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Jordan said it had "great respect" for Syria and expressed regret for civilian casualties.

Its Monday strikes came after gunmen last week killed nine people and wounded 25 others during a funeral service at a Greek Orthodox church in Hammoud village in southern Jordan's Karak governorate.

While Jordan has insisted it coordinated its airstrikes with Syria, Damascus has denied the claim and the two sides have provided differing tolls.

Syria's civil defence agency said the Jordanian strikes killed seven people including three children.

Jordan's government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said that "the preliminary results... indicate significant losses among Daesh's ranks -- estimated at more than 20 fighters", using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State jihadist group.

He also said "a large weapons depot belonging to the organisation" had been destroyed.

- 'Blatant violation' -

Momani expressed regret for any civilian casualties, saying Jordan had avoided targeting locations where it believed civilians were present.

Syria's foreign ministry issued a "condemnation and rejection" of the strikes, calling them "an unacceptable violation and breach of Syrian airspace without any prior coordination".

It also said the raid was "a blatant violation of the principles of good-neighbourliness and Syrian national sovereignty".

Amman appeared keen to put an end to the crisis, with Momani saying that "Jordan holds great respect for the Syrian state and its brotherly people".

Syria said five people including a woman and three children were killed in the village of Al-Taf in Daraa province, which borders Jordan, with two other people killed elsewhere in the south.

"We were asleep when the missile hit us. My mother, my older brother and his three children -- two boys and a girl -- were killed," said Nassouh al-Salim in Al-Taf, staring at a grey body bag.

An AFP reporter saw a huge crater in the family's destroyed home, with school books, clothes and the remains of furniture strewn among the rubble.

After the strikes, Syria closed its main Nassib border crossing with Jordan, known as Jaber on the Jordanian side, suspending all passenger and commercial traffic in both directions, citing "the current circumstances".

But Syrian Emergencies and Disaster Management Minister Raed al-Saleh said later Tuesday that both sides were handling the dispute through "diplomatic and legal channels" with the aim of securing justice for the victims.

- 'Dark ideologies' -

On Monday, Amman said authorities had arrested three Jordanians accused of the church killings, two of them brothers and the other related by marriage.

Authorities said the suspects were hospitalised after being wounded in a shootout with security forces.

Karak is home to a significant Christian community in Muslim-majority Jordan, where Christians make up between two and three percent of the population.

"We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated," Jordan's King Abdullah II said.

IS was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, after it seized swathes of territory during the country's more than 13-year civil war.

But remnants are still present there and the group occasionally claims attacks, mainly targeting Syrian security forces.

The group has previously been present in parts of Daraa province.

Jordan has struck southern Syria in the past, saying it targeted sites used by arms and drugs traffickers.

Under Syria's new authorities, the two countries have committed to fighting drug smuggling across their porous border.

burs-ser-lg/rh/amj

(A.Johnson--TAG)