Jordan Shoots Downs Drone Launched from Syria

File Photo/Jordanian Armed Forces
File Photo/Jordanian Armed Forces
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Jordan Shoots Downs Drone Launched from Syria

File Photo/Jordanian Armed Forces
File Photo/Jordanian Armed Forces

The Jordanian army announced Thursday that its forces thwarted an attempt to smuggle drugs from Syria using a drone.

“An Eastern Military Zone unit shot down a drug-filled drone flown across the border from Syrian territory,” read a statement by the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF).

The drone was intercepted and shot down immediately by the ground forces, a JAF source said, adding that drugs were found after swiping the crash area.

The army will not tolerate any attempt to infiltrate the kingdom’s borders, the source stressed.

Jordanian authorities often announce killing smugglers and thwarting drug smuggling operations on the border with Syria, but this was the first time it announces downing a drone used for this purpose.

In other news, a US outpost in southern Syria was also attacked by a drone on Wednesday.

The garrison, known as Tanf, is located in a strategic area near Syria’s Tanf border crossing with Iraq and Jordan. It was first set up when ISIS militants controlled eastern Syria bordering Iraq.

Explosions were heard in al-Tanf military base due to drone shelling on the buffet, a mosque and a warehouse of food supply inside the base, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

It’s unknown yet whether ISIS or Iranian militias backing regime forces were responsible for the shelling, the war monitor noted. However, no casualties have been reported yet.

“We maintain the inherent right of self-defense and will respond at a time and place of our choosing,” the Central Command stressed.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”