February 2, 2024
Jordan has become the latest country to launch air raids into Syria; it is attacking hideouts of Iranian-backed drug smugglers to try to stop a large-scale smuggling operation going on for several years.
The Jordanian military said it foiled a plot December 18 by dozens of infiltrators from Syria linked to pro-Iranian militias, who crossed its border with rocket launchers, anti-personnel mines and explosives.
Two regional intelligence agencies and a Western diplomatic source who track the situation in southern Syria told Reuters Jordanian war planes had hit the drug-related targets in rare raids inside Syria since the more than decade-old conflict began.
They said the jets bombed the suspected home of a leading drug dealer in the town of Salkhad in Sweida province while other strikes hit hideouts in the Deraa province. The two provinces border Jordan.
Ryan Marouf, editor of the local Suwayda 24 news website, told Reuters it was not clear if there were any casualties from the raids.
Jordanian aircraft struck a second time a few weeks later.
War-torn Syria has become the region’s main site for a multi-billion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan being a key transit route to the oil-rich Persian Gulf states for a Syrian-made amphetamine known as captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say.
