Jordan has carried out air strikes in Syria in “retaliation” for last week’s deadly church attack, killing at least seven people, including three children, according to Syrian authorities.
The attacks on Monday prompted Syria to close its main crossing with Jordan.
The Jordanian Armed Forces said in a statement that it targeted “hideouts” of armed groups in southeastern Syria in response to the gun attack at a church in Jordan’s 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”.
But in a statement, the government in Damascus said the attacks had gone ahead “without prior coordination or notification” and said it had launched an investigation.
Later on Tuesday, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said the air strikes killed 20 fighters from the Islamic State armed group, but acknowledged that some civilians were killed.
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.
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.
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