DAMASCUS: At least nine civilians, including two children, were killed Thursday in air attacks on Syria possibly to have been carried out by Jordan against drug-traffickers, a monitor and media outlet reported.
Jordan has tightened controls along its border with Syria in recent years and its armed forces occasionally announce operations to foil drug and weapon smuggling attempts from its war-hit neighbour.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Jordanian war jets carried out air strikes targeting residential areas and a warehouse in southeastern province of Sweida, killing at least 9 people, including two girls and 4 women.
The Britain-based group said that the first strike on a house in the village of Urman killed a man, his wife and their 2 daughters, along with his brother and his wife.
The Observatory added that the bodies of a man, his mother and aunt were found at the second house that was targeted.
While a media outlet reported that air strikes likely to have been carried out by the Jordanian air force killed at least ten people in Urman.
Jordan’s armed forces carry out attacks
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said that Jordan’s armed forces often carry out deadly attacks on civilian homes on the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.
On this occasion, he said, it remained unclear if the two men targeted in the latest attacks were drug-traffickers.
