Jordanian army has strike A crackdown on drug and weapons smugglers in the country’s northern border with Syria has been reported, targeting points that trafficking gangs use as “jumping points” into Jordan.
Jordanian news agency Petra said Wednesday’s attack “eliminated a number of people organizing arms and drug trafficking”. drug smuggling along the northern border of the kingdom”.
Jordanian armed forces destroyed “factories and workshops” used by trafficking gangs, Petra reported, adding that the attacks were carried out based on “precise intelligence” and in coordination with regional partners.
Petra said the Jordanian military did not name the partner countries involved in the attack, but warned it would “continue to respond to any threat with force at the appropriate time and place.”
Syrian state broadcaster Al-Ikhbariah TV reported on its Telegram channel that Jordanian forces carried out airstrikes in the southern and eastern countryside of Syria’s Suwayda province.
A resident of Syria’s Suwayda border region told AFP the bombing was “extremely intense and targeted farms and smuggling routes,” while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said jets and helicopters were reportedly involved in the attack.
The observatory said photos taken at the site of the attack showed damage to abandoned military camps of the former Assad regime in Suwayda.
There were no initial reports of casualties in the Jordanian attack, and there was no official comment from the Damascus authorities.
A farm believed to be used to store drugs was one of the targets, according to the Zaman Al Wasl online news website, which also reported that similar attacks had previously occurred in Jordan with the aim of Block the flow of Captagon – An addictive amphetamine-type stimulant.
Before the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, fentacan had become the regime’s largest export and main source of funding during the country’s years of brutal civil war.
The synthetic drug, produced in large quantities in Syria, has flooded the region, particularly the Gulf states, prompting neighboring countries to announce seizures and call on Lebanon and Damascus to step up efforts to crack down on the trade.
Although Damascus denies involvement in the drug trade, analysts estimate that amphetamine production and trafficking generate billions of dollars in revenue for Assad and his associates and allies as they seek an economic lifeline in the civil war. The civil war lasted from 2011 to the fall of the regime last year.
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