Jordan and Syria agreed to create a security committee to review Oct. 26 airstrikes in southern Syria, after Damascus disputed prior coordination and Syrian officials reported seven people killed.
Damascus said it had neither coordinated with Jordan before the operation nor received advance notice. Jordan’s military said its Royal Jordanian Air Force had coordinated the mission with the Syrian government. The two accounts differ on whether Jordan consulted Damascus before the strikes.
Jordan’s military said its forces hit sites linked to groups it described as terrorist organizations. It also said people involved in the Oct. 23 church attack in Jordan had connections to groups targeted in Syria.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani agreed on Oct. 28 to create the committee. It is tasked with examining the strikes and their consequences and strengthening field coordination and intelligence sharing. No public timetable for its work was available.
Syrian emergency and health officials reported seven people killed in Daraa province: three children, one woman and three men. They also reported three injuries. An emergency official said the count remained provisional as response teams continued their work. The tally was detailed in EconoTimes’ earlier coverage of the strikes.
Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammad Momani said an initial assessment indicated that more than 20 Islamic State group (Daesh) operatives had been killed and a large weapons store destroyed. Those claims have not been independently confirmed. Momani also expressed regret over civilian casualties.
Jordan described the strikes as retaliation for an Oct. 23 attack at a church in Hamoud, Karak. Jordanian officials said the attack killed nine people and injured 34. They said three people had been arrested and the investigation was continuing.
The episode follows years of Jordan-Syria security cooperation on terrorism, arms trafficking and drug smuggling, according to Jordanian officials. Syrian officials said the airstrikes violated Syria’s sovereignty. Human Rights Watch reported that Jordanian strikes in southern Syria on Jan. 18, 2024, killed 10 people, including women and children, and called for accountability and compensation.
Al Jazeera reported that Navvar Saban, a researcher at the Arab Center for Contemporary Syrian Studies, said the families needed an explanation of why the strike killed their relatives. The committee’s review is the next announced step, though no timetable for its work has been made public.
