Jordan carried out airstrikes against armed groups in Syria on Monday in retaliation for Friday's deadly attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, the Jordanian military said, in an escalation that has already produced conflicting accounts of civilian casualties and a dispute over whether Damascus was notified in advance.
The Jordanian air force said the operation struck militant hideouts in southern Syria linked to the church attack, killing and wounding a number of members of what it described as terrorist groups and destroying several of their vehicles and positions. Jordan did not identify the groups targeted or give specific casualty figures for the militants.
What Jordan says it struck
The Jordanian military named the operation "Jordanian Deterrence – Hamoud," after the village of Hamoud in Karak governorate where the church attack took place. It said fighter jets destroyed several sites and military vehicles belonging to groups connected to Friday's attack.
Syria's Civil Defence service said at least four sites in rural Daraa and Suwayda provinces were hit on Monday evening. Reports of civilian deaths differed between Syrian sources: the director of health in Daraa told the state news agency SANA that at least five civilians had been killed, including women, children and a 65-year-old man, while Syria's Civil Defence later reported recovering the bodies of seven people — three men, a woman and three children.
According to the Civil Defence account, five of the seven — a man, a woman and three children — were members of one family killed in a strike on a tent in the village of Al-Tai in Daraa province, with three other family members wounded. It also reported an 80-year-old man killed in Al Shayyah in Daraa, a strike on a residential building in Muzayrib that caused no casualties, and a 60-year-old man killed in Shahba in Suwayda province.
Three arrests in Karak
Earlier on Monday, Jordanian security forces arrested three men in connection with the church attack after a dawn shootout at an abandoned house in Karak governorate. All three men were wounded, officials said, and firearms and ammunition were recovered from the property.
Jordan's Public Security Directorate identified the arrested men as brothers Hazzah Zaidan Mohammad and Mishal Zaidan Mohammad, and their brother-in-law Ahmad Sami Hussein. All three are Jordanian, officials said.
The agency's chief described the gunmen as "takfiri," a term used for Sunni militants, but said they were not tied to any organized group. "They only represent themselves," Maj. Gen. Obaidallah Abd Rabbo Al-Maayta told a news conference, adding that investigations were still ongoing and that there were no indications so far of links to other cells.
The church attack struck St. George's Greek Orthodox Church during a funeral in Hamoud, about 90 kilometers south of Amman. Gunmen opened fire on mourners, killing nine people and wounding more than two dozen others, according to the Associated Press. Jordan declared three days of mourning for the victims. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the attackers' motive remained unknown, officials said.
Conflicting accounts and border fallout
Jordan's military said the strikes on Syria were launched in coordination with the Syrian government. Syria denied that account, saying the operation took place "without prior coordination or notification with the Syrian side" and that Syrian authorities were investigating the incident and had opened communication channels with Jordan.
After the strikes, Syria's border authority closed the Nassib crossing, suspending traffic in both directions. Nassib is the only crossing for passengers and commercial goods between Jordan and Syria, according to Al Jazeera. A Syrian Foreign Ministry official called the strikes a "treacherous attack" and said the ministry would try to manage the fallout in a way that preserved Syrian sovereignty.
King Abdullah II condemned the church shooting and vowed to respond with an "iron fist," ordering security agencies to pursue those responsible and intensify efforts to combat extremism. Jordan's interior minister said on Friday the attack was carried out by extremists, but that it was too early to determine whether they had links to known groups inside or outside Jordan.
The attack shocked Jordan, where such violence is rare. Karak is home to a minority Christian population; Christians make up about 300,000 of Jordan's 11.5 million people, according to Al Jazeera.
What to watch next
The key questions now are whether Jordan and Syria can contain the diplomatic fallout, whether investigators establish any wider network behind the three arrested men, and whether the civilian death toll in southern Syria is confirmed independently. For now, the two governments disagree on the most basic fact of the operation — whether it was coordinated — and that disagreement, along with the closed border crossing, will shape what happens next.
Watch: Jordan launches air strikes in Syria after deadly church attack (Al Jazeera English)
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: Al Jazeera; Al Arabiya; The Jerusalem Post / Reuters; Associated Press via ETV Bharat.