Five drug smugglers were killed and four others injured during a foiled attempt to smuggle large quantities of drugs into Jordan from Syria, the Jordanian Armed Forces.
The army said in a statement that large quantities of drugs were seized.
An official military source in the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces stated that the Eastern Military District, in coordination with the military security services and the Anti-Narcotics Department, "thwarted on Sunday dawn an attempt to infiltrate and smuggle large quantities of narcotic substances coming from Syrian territory."
The operation came hours after the meeting of the Jordanian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese interior ministers in Amman on Saturday.
Observers considered the timing of the operation as a Syrian response to any serious effort to combat drug trafficking operations.
They noted that it falls under a "Syrian rejection of the agreement to establish a joint communication cell between Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon" to follow-up and track shipments until their final destination.
On Saturday, the interior ministers discussed in a three-hour meeting ways to combat drug trafficking and agreed to set up a joint telecommunications cell to exchange information on such illegal businesses.
It was unclear which exact issues were addressed in the meeting or the extent of the discrepancy or agreement between the ministers.
The ministers did not issue any recommendations or final statements in such meetings, while none of the participating delegations made any announcement to journalists.
Observers believed that confronting the drug threat was a priority through forming a work cell supported by operational and intelligence expertise.
The meeting in Amman came a few weeks after official Syrian-Jordanian statements were exchanged about Damascus' "lack of seriousness" in putting an end to drug smuggling operations coming from its territory.
Jordan accused Syria of failure to exercise its sovereignty over its territory, adding that it officially sponsors militias affiliated with the army and Iran.
Jordan did not comment on reports concerning the Jordanian Air Force conducting four air sorties targeting drug factories in Daraa and al-Suwaida.
Syria, for its part, denounced the attacks, during which children and women were killed. Damascus said there was "no justification" for airstrikes that Jordan has launched into its territory.
Official Jordanian sources responded that the Syrian position was "full of fallacies," the same sources downplayed the importance of the Syrian reactions.
They claimed the Syrian statements were an "attempt to contain the anger of the southern Syrian regions," accusing the Syrian regime of supporting drug smuggling toward Jordan.
Over the past year, the recommendations of a series of consultative meetings held in Riyadh and Amman were dismissed, while Syrian-Jordanian security talks held in the presence of army leaders and intelligence agencies stopped.
Official sources in Jordan said Syria did not commit to implementing the recommendations of a series of security meetings and did not implement the agreements, adding that this can't be "dealt with in good faith."
Local sources confirm the daily activity of smugglers coming from Syrian territory to infiltrate and carry out organized operations on the northeastern border of Jordan.
Jordanian sources previously announced to Asharq Al-Awsat that smuggling militias in southern Syria are connected with local groups residing in the east of the country, near the Iraqi border.
Authorities arrested organized local groups that receive smuggled goods and re-export them to Iraq or resell them in the local market.
In December 2023, Jordanian border guard forces clashed with several armed groups coming from inside Syria, arresting one of them who was carrying large quantities of drugs.
