Jordan Airstrikes in Southern Syria Kill at Least Five, Damascus Says, and Syria Closes Border Crossing

Following Friday's shooting at a funeral in the Greek Orthodox church in Karak, Jordan arrested three suspects and, on Monday, sent warplanes into southern Syria. Syria says the strikes killed civilians. Jordan says it hit "terrorist" hideouts.

The strikes have turned a domestic terror case into a dispute between two neighbors, and the Syrian side has now closed the border.

What Jordan says it hit

The Jordanian air force said it targeted "hideouts of terrorist organizations" in southern Syria tied to the people behind the church attack. It said the raids killed and wounded "many members of these terrorist groups" and destroyed a number of their vehicles.

Jordan has not named the groups or given precise locations. Its armed forces said the operation was carried out in coordination with the Syrian government.

What Syria says happened

Syria rejects that. In a statement, the government said the operation "was conducted without prior coordination or notification" and that it has launched "comprehensive investigations to establish the full circumstances of the targeting." It also said it had opened direct channels of communication with Jordanian officials.

Casualty figures differ by agency. The health director in Daraa told Syria's state news agency SANA that at least five civilians were killed, including women, children and a 65-year-old man.

Syria's Civil Defence service, the White Helmets, put the toll at seven. Its crews recovered the bodies of three men, a woman and three children from at least four sites across rural Daraa and Suwayda.

Five of the dead were one family, a man, a woman and three children, killed when a strike hit their tent in the village of Al-Tai in Daraa. Three other relatives, including a child, were wounded.

A second strike on Al Shayyah, also in Daraa, killed an 80-year-old man. A third hit a residential building in Muzayrib, in the Ain al-Basal area, and caused no casualties. A fourth struck a residential building in the town of Shahba in Suwayda, killing a 60-year-old man.

Border shut

After the strikes, Syria suspended all passenger and commercial traffic in both directions at the Nassib crossing. Nassib is the only passenger and commercial border crossing between the two countries. Syrian authorities said the closure was meant "to ensure the safety of travellers and workers at the crossing." No reopening date has been given.

The Karak attack and the arrests

The shooting hit the Hamoud Greek Orthodox church in Karak, about 90 km (55 miles) south of Amman, while more than a hundred people had gathered for a funeral. Footage showed three gunmen opening fire at the entrance before storming inside. Nine people were killed, two of them dying of their wounds over the weekend, and 34 were injured.

Jordan declared three days of mourning. King Abdullah II ordered an "iron fist" response. Queen Rania and Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah attended a funeral for the victims.

Before dawn Monday, security forces found three men hiding in an abandoned house in Karak. After a shootout, all three were wounded and taken into custody. The Public Security Directorate identified them as brothers Hazzah Zaidan Mohammad and Mishal Zaidan Mohammad, and their brother-in-law Ahmad Sami Hussein. Authorities said Hazzah masterminded the attack.

Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said all three are Jordanians. Public security chief Maj. Gen. Obaidallah al-Maayta said a large cache of munitions was found in the house. No group has claimed responsibility.

A gap in Jordan's account

Al-Maayta called the gunmen "takfiri," a term for Sunni extremists. He also said they were not tied to any organized group. "They only represent themselves," he told a news conference.

Jordan's military, meanwhile, says its jets hit organizations linked to the attackers inside Syria. Amman has not explained how the two statements fit together, or whom the air force actually struck. Al-Faraya told reporters that if the "terroristic, extremist way of thinking" is not resolved, "we will see incidents like this again."

What comes next

Syria's investigation is open, and so are its lines to Amman. Two questions are unanswered: whether Damascus and Amman reconcile their accounts of the coordination, and when Nassib reopens.