Jordan Army Says it Detected Suspicious Aerial Movements near Syria Border

(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 Army Says it Detected Suspicious Aerial Movements near Syria Border

(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 its air defense radar system had detected suspicious aerial movements from an unknown source along the border with Syria, which a regional security source said were most probably missiles fired by pro-Iranian militias from Iraq.
Jets believed to be Jordanian had been heard hovering over the Jordanian city of Irbid and areas near the border crossing with Syria, witnesses said.
The army said an air force squadron had flown to ensure the airspace was not under any threat. It did not say from where the movements came, Reuters reported.
"The airforce responded to an alert of radar systems that monitored aerial movements whose source is not known," the army statement said.
In January three US service members were killed and as many as 34 wounded after a drone attack on a US outpost in Jordan that Washington linked to Iranian-backed militants.
Jordan has requested Patriot air defense systems from Washington, saying it fears being caught in the crossfire if the war in Gaza pulls in Iran and its well-armed regional militias on the kingdom's borders.
Another regional security source said two missiles that came from the direction of the Iraqi border in an area where pro-Iranian Shi'ite militias have a presence were intercepted.
"Regardless whether there were drones or missiles that were intercepted or fired or not, the risk of Jordan being caught in the crossfire can only increase if the war continues and expands," Saud Al Sharafat, former brigadier-general in Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate, said.
"The kingdom is located in an explosive region at the center of an exchange of drones and missiles fired by Iran's proxies in the region," Sharafat added.
Since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October, Iraq and Syria have witnessed tit-for-tat attacks between hardline Iran-backed armed groups and US forces stationed in the region.
Officials say Jordan's government, which signed a defense deal with the United States in January 2021, wants to bolster its defenses against Iranian-backed militias building up their strength on Jordan's borders with Iraq and Syria.
There have been several missiles fired by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group at Israel that were downed in the area of the Red Sea city of Eilat, which is located next to Jordan's border and its city of Aqaba.
The staunch US ally also says Iran is piling pressure with a relentless multi billion-dollar drug war along the border with Syria which it blames on Iranian-backed militias that hold sway in southern Syria.
Jordan has waged aerial strikes against Iranian-backed drug dealers' hideouts inside Syria, saying their border incursions posed a direct threat to its national security.
Iran says the allegations are part of Western plots against the country.



US, Arab Mediators Make Some Progress in Gaza Peace Talks, No Deal Yet

Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
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US, Arab Mediators Make Some Progress in Gaza Peace Talks, No Deal Yet

Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)

US and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, Palestinian sources close to the talks said on Thursday.
As talks continued in Qatar, the Israeli military carried out strikes across the enclave, killing at least 17 people, Palestinian medics said.
Qatar, the US and Egypt are making a major push to reach a deal to halt fighting in the 15-month conflict and free remaining hostages held by the Hamas group before President Joe Biden leaves office.
President-elect Donald Trump has warned there will be "hell to pay", if the hostages are not released by his inauguration on Jan. 20.
On Thursday, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said the absence of a deal so far did not mean the talks were going nowhere and said this was the most serious attempt so far to reach an accord.
"There are extensive negotiations, mediators and negotiators are talking about every word and every detail. There is a breakthrough when it comes to narrowing old existing gaps but there is no deal yet," he told Reuters, without giving further details.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar-Tal said Israel was fully committed to reaching an agreement to return its hostages from Gaza but faces obstruction from Hamas.
The two sides have been at an impasse for a year over two key issues. Hamas has said it will only free its remaining hostages if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.
SEVERE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
On Thursday, the death toll from Israel's military strikes included eight Palestinians killed in a house in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, where Israeli forces have operated for more than three months. Nine others, including a father and his three children, died in two separate airstrikes on two houses in central Gaza Strip, health officials said.
There was no Israeli military comment on the two incidents.
More than 46,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the territory's 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.
Israel denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza and says it has facilitated the distribution of hundreds of truckloads of food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to warehouses and shelters over the past week.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. On Wednesday, the Israeli military said troops had recovered the body of Israeli Bedouin hostage Youssef Al-Ziyadna, along with evidence that was still being examined suggesting his son Hamza, taken on the same day, may also be dead.
"We will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.