Jordan launches air strikes in Syria in response to a fatal church shooting

DEVELOPING STORY,

Syria closes border crossings with Jordan after air strikes kill seven people in Deraa and Suweyda, including children.

Jordan has carried out air strikes in Syria in retaliation for last week’s deadly church attack, with Syrian authorities saying the raids killed at least seven people, including three children and a woman.

The attacks on Monday prompted Syria to close its main crossing with Jordan.

Jordan’s Armed Forces said in a statement that it targeted “hideouts” of armed groups in southeastern Syria in “retaliation” for the gun attack at a church in its Karak governorate on Friday. At least nine people were killed and dozens more wounded in the shootings.

The Jordanian military said the strikes on Syria were launched “in coordination with the Syrian government”.

It said the raids “resulted in the killing and wounding of many members of these terrorist groups and the destruction of a number of their vehicles”.

Syria, however, denied any coordination with Jordan.

In a statement, the Syrian government said “the military operation was conducted without prior coordination or notification” and said it has launched an investigation into the attacks.

Syria’s civil defense service said at least four sites in rural Deraa and Suweyda provinces were hit on Monday evening, and that its crews had recovered the bodies of seven people: three men, a woman and three children.

Five of the dead – a man, a woman and three children – were members of one family killed in a strike on a tent in the village of Al Tai in Deraa Province, the service said. Three other family members, including a child, were wounded.

A second strike hit Al Shayyah, also in Deraa, killing an 80-year-old man. A third hit a residential building in Muzayrib, in the Ain al-Basal area of Deraa, causing no casualties.

A fourth struck a residential building in the town of Shahba in Suweyda province, killing a 60-year-old man.

After the strikes, Syria’s border authority closed the Nassib crossing, suspending traffic in both directions. Nassib is the only crossing for passengers and commercial goods between Jordan and Syria.

A Syrian foreign ministry official called the strikes a “treacherous attack” and told Al Jazeera the ministry would try to manage the fallout in a way that preserved Syrian sovereignty.

Earlier on Monday, Jordanian security forces arrested two brothers and their brother-in-law on suspicion of involvement in the church attack. The arrested took place in the village of Al-Jadeeda, after a shootout with authorities.

A Jordanian government source told Al Jazeera that the suspects sustained serious injuries during the confrontation, which lasted for about three hours.

The arrests and air strikes in Syria come after Jordan’s King Abdullah II pledged a stern response to the church attack. During the attack, three gunmen opened fire on mourners at a funeral in a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, about 56 miles south of the capital, Amman.

The king said those responsible would face the “harshest penalties” and ordered a review of the country’s security procedures.

Karak is home to a minority Christian population, which makes up about 300,000 of Jordan’s 11.5 million people.