Jordan on Tuesday acknowledged that airstrikes it launched in southern Syria on Monday caused civilian casualties, while also claiming that the attack killed about 20 ISIS fighters.
Amman framed the strikes as retaliation for the October 23 attack on St. George’s Orthodox Church in Jordan’s western Karak province, which killed nine Christians who were attending a funeral, though it arrested three suspects in Jordan after a shootout before the airstrikes.
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said that Amman regretted the civilian casualties in the Syria strikes and was cooperating with Syrian authorities to investigate the strikes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Tuesday that at least seven civilians were confirmed killed by the Jordanian strikes, which hit multiple targets across the Suwayda and Daraa provinces. Among the dead was a family of five, including three children, and an elderly man.
The SOHR also said that there were “no confirmed casualties among ISIS, Al-Qaeda or other groups classified as terrorist organizations have been documented in the available toll.”
Momani claimed that initial “operational assessments indicate substantial enemy casualties, estimated at over 20 Daesh (ISIS) operatives killed, alongside the destruction of a major weapons depot belonging to the group.” Jordanian officials have described the three suspected church shooters as having a “takfiri extremist ideology” but initially said they had no known links to other terrorist cells.
Jordan, which receives a minimum of $350 million in military aid from the US each year and flies US-made F-16 fighter jets, claimed that the attack was coordinated with Damascus. But the Syrian government, led by former al-Qaeda commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, denied that it received advanced notice.
