Jordan Beefs Up Iraq Border Defense, Fearing ISIS Incursion

ISIS Keen to Advance Into Jordan

The Jordanian military is increasing its presence along the border with neighboring Iraq today, after the nations’ only border crossing was captured on the Iraqi side by ISIS.

Jordanian officials say they have effectively halted all traffic through the crossing, and truck drivers who have returned from Iraq reported the once busy Amman-Baghdad highway is now full of checkpoints from various Sunni tribal factions throughout Anbar.

With several strong Salafist movements already active in Jordan, the Hashemite kingdom is afraid that an  ISIS incursion could quickly snowball, as it has in Iraq.

ISIS is keen to expand anywhere they can, but Jordan might be a particularly fertile ground for expansion, and a meaningful one since ISIS got its start as al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (later renamed al-Qaeda of Iraq), founded and run by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.