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Jordan strikes militant hideouts in Syria after deadly church attack; border crossing closed

Amman • October 27, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: a closed desert border crossing at dusk, with smoke on the distant horizon

Editorial illustration — Press Pass USA

Jordan's air force struck what it called militant hideouts in southern Syria on Monday in retaliation for last week's deadly attack on a church in Karak, and Syria closed the two countries' main border crossing on Tuesday, suspending passenger and cargo traffic in both directions.

Jordan's Armed Forces said the strikes targeted hideouts of armed groups it blamed for the attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Karak on Friday, October 23, which killed nine people and wounded dozens. The military said the operation killed and wounded many members of what it called terrorist groups and destroyed a number of their vehicles, but it did not name the groups targeted, give precise locations, or publish its own casualty figures. It said the strikes were carried out in coordination with the Syrian government.

Damascus denied any coordination. Syria's government said it had opened an investigation, opened direct communication channels with Jordan, and expressed what its foreign ministry called a complete reservation over strikes carried out without prior coordination. Syria's Civil Defence said in a preliminary report that its crews responded to four sites hit in the countryside of Daraa and Sweida provinces and recovered seven bodies: three men, a woman and three children, with three other people wounded. The report described five of the dead — a man, a woman and three children — as members of one family killed in a strike on a tent in the village of Al Tai in Daraa, and the other two as a 60-year-old man and an 80-year-old man killed in separate strikes. Daraa's health directorate, quoted by Syria's state news agency, reported five civilians killed, a lower toll than the Civil Defence figure; the two accounts have not been reconciled, and neither side's casualty claim has been independently verified.

Earlier on Monday, Jordanian security forces arrested three suspects in the church attack — two brothers and their brother-in-law — after a shootout in the village of Al-Jadeeda near Karak, according to Jordanian officials. Jordan's interior minister said the attackers were all Jordanian citizens. King Abdullah II had pledged a stern response to the church attack, which Jordanian authorities described as an assault on the country's Christian minority.

Syria's border authority said Tuesday it had closed the Nassib crossing with Jordan, suspending all passenger and commercial traffic in both directions because of developments on the ground in Daraa province, to ensure the safety of travellers and workers. Nassib is the only crossing between Jordan and Syria serving both passenger and cargo traffic, so the closure cuts the main overland link between the two countries while both governments investigate and keep communication channels open. Whether the episode stays contained will depend on whether the two sides can agree on what happened in southern Syria — and on whether further strikes follow.

Sources: Reuters (Oct 27, 2026); Al Jazeera (Oct 26, 2026); Jordan Armed Forces statement; Syrian government statements via SANA; Syrian Civil Defence preliminary report; Daraa Health Directorate via SANA.