Jordan Says It Foiled Plot against Its Security by Gunmen from Syria

(FILES) This file photo taken on August 1, 2021 shows Jordanian troops guarding the closed Jaber/Nassib border post on Jordan's border with Syria. (Photo by Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP)
(FILES) This file photo taken on August 1, 2021 shows Jordanian troops guarding the closed Jaber/Nassib border post on Jordan's border with Syria. (Photo by Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP)
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Jordan Says It Foiled Plot against Its Security by Gunmen from Syria

(FILES) This file photo taken on August 1, 2021 shows Jordanian troops guarding the closed Jaber/Nassib border post on Jordan's border with Syria. (Photo by Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP)
(FILES) This file photo taken on August 1, 2021 shows Jordanian troops guarding the closed Jaber/Nassib border post on Jordan's border with Syria. (Photo by Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP)

The Jordanian army said on Monday dozens of infiltrators from Syria crossed its border with rocket launchers, anti-personnel mines and explosives in what it said was a foiled plot against the kingdom's security.

State broadcaster al Mamlaka said the army blew up a vehicle laden with explosives in the biggest armed cross-border operation to smuggle weapons and drugs in recent years.  

Earlier, the army on Monday said it had seized weapons and drugs after clashes with armed drug dealers along the Syrian border at dawn, and officials said the gunmen were linked to pro-Iranian militias seeking to undermine the country's security.  

The army said the infiltrators had fled back across the border after injuring several army personnel. The weapons seized included automatic rifles and rockets, it added in a statement.  

Jordanian officials say that Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group and militias who control much of southern Syria are behind the surge in drug and weapons smuggling.  

Hezbollah denies the accusations. Iran says the allegations are part of Western plots against the country.

"The last few days have seen a spike in these operations that are changing from infiltration attempts and smuggling to armed clashes with the goal of crossing the border by force and targeting border guards," the army said in a statement.  

The army said it would "continue to track these armed groups and prevent any attempt to undermine the kingdom's national security".  

UN experts and US officials say the illicit drug trade finances a proliferation of pro-Iranian militias and pro-government paramilitary forces created by more than a decade of conflict in Syria.



Syrian Government, Kurdish Officials Discuss Merging Their Armed Forces

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Syrian Government, Kurdish Officials Discuss Merging Their Armed Forces

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

Government officials met Wednesday in the northeastern province of Hasakeh with the commander of the main Kurdish-led group in the country, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is backed by the US.

The new Syrian government wants to bring Syria’s breakaway Kurdish militias back under government control, but the details of their recent breakthrough agreement are still being worked out and negotiators will have overcome a decade of civil war.

Wednesday’s meeting comes a week after Syria’s interim government signed a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the SDF into the Syrian army.

The deal should be implemented by the end of the year. It would bring northeast Syria’s borders and lucrative oil fields under the central government’s control.