Jordan acknowledges Syrian civilian deaths in strikes it says killed IS extremists

AL-TUFF, Syria (AP) — Jordan on Tuesday said its airstrikes over Syria killed some 20 militants of the extremist Islamic State group, but also acknowledged that civilians had been killed in the attacks.

The Hashemite Kingdom’s air force Monday evening carried out airstrikes in Syria in retaliation for last week’s attacks on a funeral at a Greek Orthodox Church in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed nine people. Earlier that day it announced it arrested the three gunmen, but did not disclose their affiliation.

The numbers given in remarks by Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammad al-Momani differ from what Syrian first-responders reported. Syria's civil defense said it only recovered the bodies of seven civilians killed in Jordanian strikes in the southern Daraa and Sweida provinces. Five of those were a family, including three children and a woman; two of the men who were killed were elderly.

Syria’s government said the strikes were carried out without prior coordination or notification. Both Damascus and Amman said they are in communication and following up on the incident.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry in a statement condemned the strikes, calling them an “unacceptable violation and encroachment” of Syrian airspace, but also said that both countries’ leaderships will strengthen security coordination to “obstruct any efforts to destabilize the two countries’ security and spill the blood of its people.”

Al-Momani said the attacks were based on intelligence on “confirmed threats and planned terrorist acts against Jordan,” and expressed regret over the civilian casualties.

Amman and Damascus maintained strong bilateral ties following the downfall of the Assad dynasty in December 2024 and the emergence of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government.

Masoud al-Salim lost his wife, son, and three grandchildren in one of the strikes that hit his home in the Syrian border village of Al-Tuff in Daraa province.

“I came running and found there was no house anymore, no tent, nothing. I couldn’t find anyone,” al-Salim said, rummaging through children’s schoolbooks and toys in the rubble. “I started looking under the rubble. I thought they might be buried there.”