Syria Pushes Back against Jordanian Strikes on Drug Traffickers on Syrian Territory

Destruction is scene after a Jordanian raid on Sweida, Syria on Thursday. (Suwayda24)
Destruction is scene after a Jordanian raid on Sweida, Syria on Thursday. (Suwayda24)
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Syria Pushes Back against Jordanian Strikes on Drug Traffickers on Syrian Territory

Destruction is scene after a Jordanian raid on Sweida, Syria on Thursday. (Suwayda24)
Destruction is scene after a Jordanian raid on Sweida, Syria on Thursday. (Suwayda24)

Syria’s foreign ministry in a statement Tuesday condemned recent presumed Jordanian airstrikes against suspected drug traffickers on Syrian territory, including one last week that killed women and children.

The foreign ministry statement, its first to address the issue, “expressed its deep regret over the strikes directed by the Jordanian Air Force,” which it said had been justified “as being directed at elements involved in drug smuggling across the border into Jordan.”

Smugglers have used Jordan as a corridor over the past years to smuggle highly addictive Captagon amphetamines out of Syria.

The Syrian statement said there was “no justification for such military operations,” adding that “since 2011 (Syria) has suffered from the influx of tens of thousands of terrorists and the passage of huge quantities of weapons from neighboring countries, including Jordan.”

An airstrike in the province of Sweida in southern Syria early Thursday killed at least nine people and was probably carried out by Jordan’s air force, Syrian opposition activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said nine people, including two children and at least three women, were killed in the strike.

Jordan typically does not confirm or comment on the strikes and did not comment on the Syrian foreign ministry’s statement.

Jordan helped to facilitate Syria’s return to the Arab League last year, 12 years after the league suspended Damascus because of the harsh crackdown on anti-government protesters in an uprising that quickly descended into a brutal war.

At the time of Syria’s readmission, the league expressed hope that its reintegration would help push it to combat drug trafficking. Jordan and the Arab Gulf countries, in particular, have been concerned about the mass production of Captagon in Syria.

The Jordanian authorities have recently cracked down on smuggling attempts, including some in which smugglers used drones to fly the drugs over the border.



Lebanon Health Ministry Says One Dead in Israeli Strike in South 

Mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the November 27 ceasefire with Israel, in southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
Mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the November 27 ceasefire with Israel, in southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
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Lebanon Health Ministry Says One Dead in Israeli Strike in South 

Mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the November 27 ceasefire with Israel, in southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel on April 6, 2025. (AFP)
Mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah fighters, killed before the November 27 ceasefire with Israel, in southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh, near the border with Israel on April 6, 2025. (AFP)

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike in the country's south killed one person Monday, the latest such raid despite a delicate truce between Israel and Hezbollah, and after a US envoy visited.

The "Israeli enemy" drone strike on the town of al-Taybeh near the border "led to the death of one citizen", the health ministry said in a statement.

An Israeli security source said the Israeli military "struck a Hezbollah terrorist" in the Taybeh area.

The official National News Agency (NNA) said the strike hit "in front of a motorcycle repair shop" in the town, in south Lebanon's Marjeyoun district.

Israel has continued to launch strikes on Lebanon since a November 27 ceasefire that largely halted more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of total war.

Lebanon said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed two people in south Lebanon's Zibqin, as the Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah operatives in the area.

Israeli strikes last week also targeted other south Lebanon locations and even Hezbollah's south Beirut bastion.

The NNA also reported Israeli strikes on prefabricated homes in south Lebanon's Naqoura area on Sunday. Such homes have usually been set up for returning residents whose homes were destroyed in the conflict.

The truce accord was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

Visiting US deputy special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus discussed the situation in south Lebanon and economic reforms with senior Lebanese officials at the weekend, with talks also addressing Hezbollah's disarmament.

In an interview with Lebanese television channel LBCI broadcast on Sunday, Ortagus said Washington continued to press Lebanon's government "to fully fulfil the cessation of hostilities, and that includes disarming Hezbollah and all militias", adding it should happen "as soon as possible".

Hezbollah was left severely weakened in the latest conflict with Israel.