WatchfulEye

Jordan says its Syria strikes were coordinated with Damascus. Syria denies it and has shut the border crossing.

Two Royal Jordanian Air Force F-16 fighter jets, Jordanian flags on their tails, fly in formation against a deep blue sky with the moon visible.
File photo: Royal Jordanian Air Force F-16 fighter jets fly over Shaheed Mwaffaq Air Base in Azraq, Jordan, during the Eager Tiger Falcon Air Meet training exercise on October 17, 2011. It does not show the October 26, 2026 strikes in Syria; Jordan has not said which aircraft it used. Photo: SrA Asha Kin / U.S. Air Force, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.

Jordan's air force struck what it called terrorist hideouts in southern Syria on Monday, October 26, in retaliation for a deadly attack on a church funeral in Karak. Syria says the strikes were not coordinated with it in advance, says civilians including children were killed, and closed Nasib, the only passenger and commercial crossing between the two countries.

What happened

On Friday, October 23, gunmen opened fire on mourners at a funeral in a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud, in Jordan's Karak governorate. At least nine people were killed and dozens wounded, Reuters and the Associated Press reported. No group has claimed the attack. King Abdullah II ordered security forces to respond with an "iron fist," Reuters and DW reported.

Early on Monday, October 26, Jordanian security forces arrested two brothers and their brother-in-law after a shootout in the village of al-Judayyda in Karak governorate, Reuters and DW reported. All three were wounded; no security personnel were hurt, according to Jordan's Public Security Directorate. At a press conference, Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said: "The file has not yet been closed; investigations are still ongoing. As of today, there are no indications of any links between them and other cells," Reuters reported.

Late on Monday, the Jordan Armed Forces announced that the Royal Jordanian Air Force had carried out "Operation Jordanian Deterrence - Hmoud" against "hideouts of terrorist organizations in southern Syria, in coordination with the Syrian government," according to the statement published by the state news agency Petra. The army said "the terrorists behind the Hmoud attack have ties to the targeted terrorist organizations" and that the jets killed and wounded "several terrorists." It did not name the groups, give locations or give casualty figures, Anadolu reported.

What Syria says

Syria's government said in a statement published by the state news agency SANA that the strikes had killed and wounded people "including civilians and children," and that "no coordination was made with the Syrian side in advance" of the operation. It said it had opened investigations and was in contact with Jordan, and stressed "the importance of joint field and security coordination for any steps concerning border areas." (Translation ours.) The foreign ministry told Jordan of its "complete reservation" over strikes carried out without prior coordination, Reuters reported.

Syria's civil defense said in a preliminary report that its teams responded to four sites in rural Daraa and Sweida provinces and recovered the bodies of seven people, three men, a woman and three children, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera. Three others were wounded, Reuters reported, citing the service. Five of the dead were members of one family killed in a strike on a tent in Daraa province, the service said, according to Al Jazeera. Daraa's health directorate gave figures of six and seven dead in separate Anadolu reports. There was no immediate comment from Jordan on that account, Reuters reported.

The crossing

Shortly after the strikes, Syria's General Authority for Border Crossings and Customs announced it would close the Nasib crossing with Jordan on Tuesday, October 27. The closure suspends "passenger and commercial traffic completely in both directions," citing "the current situation and field developments in Daraa province" and the safety of travelers and staff, the authority said on X. (Translation ours.) It gave no reopening date, Shafaq News reported.

Nasib, called Jaber on the Jordanian side, is the only passenger and commercial crossing between Jordan and Syria, Reuters and AP reported. It handles trucks and trade between the two countries as well as goods moving on to other markets in the region, Shafaq News reported.

Context

This is not the first time strikes from Jordan have hit southern Syria. In January 2024, suspected Jordanian air strikes on the town of Arman in Sweida province killed at least 10 people, including children, according to local activists and media cited by the BBC. There was no immediate comment from Jordan, the BBC reported. The BBC reported that Jordanian forces were believed to have carried out several strikes in the previous year on suspected drug smugglers. This time, the army announced the operation, named it and tied it to a specific attack inside Jordan.

Our reading (inference)

Two official accounts from the same day do not line up. Earlier on Monday, Jordan's interior minister said there were no indications yet that the three suspects were linked to other cells. By Monday night, the army said the attackers had ties to groups in southern Syria and struck them, saying it acted in coordination with Damascus. Damascus says there was no coordination in advance. The minister may have been speaking only about cells inside Jordan, and neither side has explained the gap.

The practical consequence is the border. A closed Nasib crossing stops passengers and freight every day it stays shut. Syria framed the closure as a safety measure and has not said when Nasib will reopen. How fast it reopens is the clearest public signal of whether the two governments settle the coordination dispute or let it harden.

What we don't know

What to watch

Sources

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