Jordanian fighter jets struck southern Syria on Monday evening, October 26, in retaliation for a deadly church attack in Jordan, and the fallout on Tuesday has turned a military response into a diplomatic row. Syria's Civil Defence said seven civilians were killed, including three children, while Jordan said its strikes killed more than 20 Islamic State fighters. Syria condemned the strikes, denied Jordan's claim of coordination, and closed the only passenger crossing between the two countries.
What happened in Syria
Jordan's Armed Forces said the strikes hit what it called terrorist hideouts in southern Syria, destroying several vehicles and structures. Syria's Civil Defence reported seven people killed at four sites in Daraa and Sweida provinces: three men, one woman, and three children, with three other family members wounded. Five members of one family were killed at Al-Taf in the Lajat area of northeast Daraa when a strike hit their tent or home, according to AFP reporting, which interviewed a survivor who said his mother, older brother, and his brother's three children were killed. An 80-year-old man was reported killed at Al-Shayyah farms near Nassib, and a 60-year-old man at Shahba in Sweida province. A residential building at Muzayrib was also hit, with no casualties reported there. Health officials in Daraa later put the toll at eight, so the exact figure remains contested; this post follows the Civil Defence account of seven.
Why Jordan struck
The trigger was a gun attack during a funeral at St. George's Greek Orthodox church in Hamoud village, Karak governorate, on Friday, in which nine people were killed and more than two dozen were wounded. Earlier on Monday, Jordan arrested three Jordanian suspects after a dawn shootout in Karak; all three were wounded and hospitalised. No group has claimed responsibility for the church attack, and King Abdullah II ordered a response with what he called an iron fist, declaring three days of mourning. Jordan's government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said on Tuesday that preliminary results indicated more than 20 Daesh fighters were killed and a large weapons depot destroyed, that the strikes were based on intelligence about confirmed or planned terrorist acts against Jordan, and that Jordan regretted the civilian casualties and had avoided locations where it believed civilians were present.
The coordination dispute
The sharpest disagreement is over whether Syria knew in advance. Jordan's military said the strikes were carried out in coordination with the Syrian government. Damascus explicitly denied that, with its foreign ministry condemning the operation as an unacceptable violation and breach of Syrian airspace and sovereignty, opening an investigation, and opening communication channels with Jordan. Syria's General Authority for Ports and Customs then closed the Nassib crossing, the only passenger and commercial crossing between the two countries, suspending traffic in both directions and citing current circumstances. Syria also said the two sides would work toward a joint field and security committee for the border. The dispute matters because it turns a counter-terrorism operation into a test of trust between two neighbours that share a long and sensitive frontier.
The takeaway
Two claims now sit side by side and cannot both be fully true: Jordan says it hit Islamic State fighters with intelligence behind it, while Syria says civilians, including children, paid the price for a strike it never agreed to. What happens next depends on whether the border closure and the casualty dispute harden into a lasting rift, or whether the promised joint security committee pulls both sides back to cooperation.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Movement Proposition (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: The Hindu (AFP report, October 27, 2026); Arab News, October 26-27 updates; Associated Press reporting.