Jordan strikes Syria in retaliation for a deadly church attack last week, the country’s military said on Monday, hours after authorities arrested three men accused of the killings, Dawn reported.
Air force jets destroyed several militant positions and killed and wounded numerous members of groups linked to the perpetrators of the church attack, the military said. Syrian authorities reported civilian casualties from the raids. Health officials in Daraa province said six people, including three children and a woman, were killed. Syria’s civil defence agency reported seven deaths in total: six in Daraa and one in neighbouring Sweida province.
Jordan strikes Syria: what the raids hit
The strikes followed the arrest of three suspects on Monday. Jordan’s director of public security, Major General Abdullah al-Maaytah, named them as Hazza Zaidan Mohammed, Meshal Zaidan Mohammed and Ahmad Sami Hussein. Two are brothers and the third is related to them by marriage. They were cornered at an abandoned house, where they had barricaded themselves inside and opened fire on security forces.
All three suspects were injured and taken to hospital, where they were still receiving treatment, Maaytah told a press conference. One was in critical condition, according to Jordan’s state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka. No security forces were hurt, and a number of weapons and a large quantity of ammunition were seized from the suspects.
Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told Al-Mamlaka that the attackers were all Jordanians who had been holed up in a building in one of the villages near the site of the attack. He said there was no indication of any external contacts or collaboration with foreign parties.
King Abdullah II said on X that security forces chased the suspects to the very end, and that those behind the attack would not escape punishment. Earlier, the king visited wounded victims of the church attack in hospital, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a pistol on his hip. Government communications minister Mohammad al-Momani said Jordan stood ready to strike with an iron fist, without mercy or leniency, against anyone who attempts to undermine the country’s security.
The Karak church attack behind the strikes
On Friday, gunmen killed nine people during a funeral service at the Greek Orthodox St George’s Church in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate, southern Jordan. Karak is home to a significant Christian community in Muslim-majority Jordan, where Christians make up between two and three per cent of the population.
Prime Minister Jafar Hassan ordered a three-day period of national mourning for the victims, with flags flown at half-mast over government and public institutions. Eight of the nine victims were laid to rest on Sunday next to the church, in a funeral that drew a huge crowd amid a large security presence. The ninth person, Mohammed al-Qasous, was buried in south Amman on Monday.
This is a new development in a story Feature Pakistan has already covered. The site reported the arrest of three men over the church attack, and earlier carried the king’s vow of the harshest retaliation after the church shooting. Monday’s strikes are the retaliation that vow pointed to, and the casualty figures from Syria are the first cost of it beyond Jordan’s borders.
Attacks on houses of worship are rare in Jordan. In 2016, an attack in Karak targeted a security centre and police patrols, leaving 10 people dead. Under Jordanian law, murder is punishable by death by hanging, so the three detained suspects now face a legal process as well as the public condemnation already delivered by the king and his ministers.
What happens next
Two questions will shape the next phase. The first is inside Jordan: the condition of the three suspects, one of them critical, and the charges they will face. The second is across the border: whether Syria’s reported civilian deaths, including children, draw a response from Damascus or from international monitors, and whether Jordan carries out further strikes. The casualty figures so far come from Syrian health officials and the civil defence agency, while Jordan’s military has described its targets as militant positions. Those two accounts do not yet agree on who died in Daraa and Sweida, and that gap is worth watching as more detail emerges.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Jordan strike Syria?
Jordan’s military said it struck militant groups in Syria in retaliation for the deadly attack on a church in Karak last week, after three suspects were arrested on Monday.
