Amman | The Jordanian army announced on Thursday that it had killed 27 drug traffickers who were trying to smuggle large quantities of narcotics from Syrian territory into the kingdom.
A clash between a unit of soldiers at the border and traffickers, supported by other armed groups, left 27 dead among the smugglers, the army said.
“A search was carried out in the area, and large quantities of narcotics were seized,” she added in a statement.
The military operation carried out on Thursday at dawn made it possible to “thwart several attempts to infiltrate and smuggle large quantities of narcotics from Syrian territory to Jordanian territory”, according to the Jordanian army.
“The smugglers were supported by other armed groups,” said the army, which claims to have killed 27 of them, injured an unknown number of individuals while other smugglers fled into Syrian territory.
On January 17, the military announced that an officer had been killed and three border guards injured in a clash with drug smugglers at the Syrian border. A few days later, one of the soldiers succumbed to his injuries.
Jordan, which has hosted around 1.6 million Syrian refugees since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in March 2011, has in recent years tightened procedures at its border with Syria, which stretches over 300 km. Thus, several dozen fighters, including a large number of extremists, have been arrested and imprisoned for having attempted to infiltrate Syrian territory to fight there.
According to the Jordanian authorities, 85% of the drugs seized are intended for smuggling out of Jordan.