Five Syrians were killed in air strikes by the Jordanian army against drug traffickers near the border with the kingdom, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said on Tuesday.
“Air strikes by Jordanian military aircraft on a farm in the border province of Soueida last night killed four people, including a woman and two children,” the OSDH reported.
According to the Observatory, which has an extensive network of sources across Syria, these attacks targeted “areas from which drug traffickers conduct smuggling operations.”
According to the same source, the farm was completely destroyed by the strikes, which also resulted in the death of a large number of sheep.
According to the OSDH, a fifth person was killed in further attacks by Jordan on a farm belonging to Faisal al-Saadi, a drug trafficker close to Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Syrian security services.
The Jordanian army said on Monday that “several traffickers were killed and injured in clashes between Jordanian border guards and armed groups on the northern border.”
Nine Syrians were among the traffickers arrested, she added, saying they had confiscated weapons, explosives and “very large quantities of narcotics.”
The army said several Jordanian border guards were injured.
The Jordanian army regularly announces operations against arms and drug trafficking, particularly Captagon (an amphetamine), on the Syrian border, where the fight against this scourge has intensified in recent years.
Arab countries are trying to strengthen security cooperation with Syria, which has turned into a drug state where the illegal Captagon trade is thriving.
Captagon is primarily intended for the Gulf States, making Jordan a transit route for its trade.
Jordan's diplomatic chief Aymane Safadi warned in mid-December that “the kingdom (…) would attack and pursue criminals who undermine Jordan's security wherever they are.”
On July 3, he and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed the need to work together to combat drug smuggling across their borders.