9 Civilians Killed in Syria Strikes Linked to Jordan

Thursday witnessed deadly air strikes in Syria, which are suspected to have been conducted by Jordan against individuals involved in drug trafficking. These strikes resulted in the tragic deaths of at least nine civilians, including two children, as reported by a monitoring group and a media source.

Jordan, which shares a border with Syria, has been intensifying its border security in recent years to combat the smuggling of drugs and weapons from the conflict-ridden nation. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring organization, reported that Jordanian fighter jets targeted residential areas and a warehouse in Syria’s southeastern province of Sweida. This attack led to the deaths of nine people, including two girls and four women, which the Observatory labeled a “massacre”.

The first air strike hit a house in the village of Urman, killing a man and his wife, their two daughters, and two other relatives. A second targeted home saw the deaths of three more individuals, according to the Observatory, which gathers information from a network of sources within Syria.

The Suwayda24 news website also covered the incident, stating that air strikes, likely conducted by the Jordanian air force, killed at least 10 people in Urman.

Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Observatory, noted that Jordanian forces frequently execute lethal strikes on civilian homes under the guise of combating drug trafficking. However, it was not confirmed whether the two men targeted in the recent strikes were indeed involved in drug trafficking.

Rayan Maarouf from Suwayda24, a platform run by citizen journalists, suggested that the men killed, along with their family members, were believed to be drug traffickers.

Earlier, on January 5, Jordan’s official Al Mamlaka television stated that the country’s air force had carried out two raids in Syria targeting drug traffickers. Jordan is also thought to be responsible for air strikes on December 18 in Syria, which claimed the lives of five people, including a woman and two children.

One of the primary drugs smuggled from Syria is captagon, an amphetamine-like stimulant, which is in high demand in the wealthy Gulf states.