The Jordanian army announced on Saturday the occurrence of armed border clashes with smugglers from Syria, which led to the injury and arrest of a number of them, and thwarted the smuggling of narcotics and weapons.
The army said – in a statement – that “armed clashes broke out at dawn between border guard forces and large armed groups of smugglers on the northern border of the kingdom.”
He confirmed that army soldiers are expelling armed groups into Syria, adding that the past few days have witnessed an increase in infiltration and smuggling operations aimed at crossing the border.
This comes after the Jordanian army announced – yesterday, Friday – that it carried out two air strikes on locations inside Syrian territory that it did not specify, indicating that they were within the framework of pursuing drug smugglers who smuggle narcotic substances into the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Reuters quoted unnamed sources that Jordanian aircraft bombed a house suspected of belonging to a major drug dealer in the village of Al-Shaab, while the other strike hit warehouses near the village of Al-Ghariya. The house and warehouses are located in the Suwayda Governorate near the Jordanian border.
On December 31, the Jordanian army said that it was facing what it described as a “frenzied campaign” from drug traffickers and weapons smugglers, warning of the danger of having a military force to confront the security forces.
During the past few days, Jordanian security carried out a series of raids in the east of the country, after clashes between the army and armed groups on the border with Syria, which resulted in the killing and wounding of a number of members of those groups, the arrest of others, the seizure of narcotic materials and missiles, and the destruction of a car loaded with explosive materials.
For years, Jordan has witnessed hundreds of attempts to infiltrate and smuggle into its territory, especially from Syria and Iraq, as a result of the deteriorating security conditions in the two neighboring countries.
Western anti-drug officials say that Syria has become the main location in the region for drug trade worth billions of dollars, and Jordan has become a major transit route for Syrian-made amphetamine known as Captagon.
