Jordan strikes ‘terrorist hideouts’ in Syria after church attack

Jordan carried out airstrikes in southern Syria on Monday evening, saying it was targeting terrorist hideouts linked to a deadly attack on a church in Karak governorate in southern Jordan on Friday. Jordanian security forces also raided a building in Jordan and detained several suspects.

Syrian officials said the strikes in the Daraa countryside killed several civilians, including women and children. On Tuesday, Damascus issued an official statement saying the operation had not been coordinated with Syria in advance, contradicting Jordan’s claim that it had been, and announced an investigation.

Many Syrians are angry over reports that as many as seven civilians were killed in the strikes, while Jordan’s military maintains that its air force hit “terrorist hideouts.” Syrian channel Levant24 showed a flag lowered to half-staff after the attack. The strikes come after a week in which Syrians have also been protesting Israeli raids in southern Syria, in which a Syrian civilian was reported killed.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, initially reported five dead. Daraa Health Director Khaled al-Amyan told SANA on Monday that the victims included women, children and an elderly man. The man, 65, was from the Sad Road area of Daraa city and died of shrapnel wounds after arriving at Daraa National Hospital. Two people wounded in the town of al-Muzayrib, in the western Daraa countryside, were taken to Tafas National Hospital for treatment, al-Amyan said.

The Syrian government expressed solidarity with the victims and wished the wounded a full recovery. It said the relevant authorities were “closely monitoring the situation to assess the needs of the affected population and provide immediate required support and humanitarian relief.”

In Damascus, questions remain about how the strikes happened, given conflicting accounts of whether Syria was told in advance. Al-Arabiya reported that Jordan says it will expand coordination with Syria in the wake of the incident. Syria said it had opened direct channels of communication with Jordanian officials to review what happened, and called for joint field and security coordination on any action along the border. The statement stressed “the need to uphold the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and preserve the security and stability of both brotherly nations.”