Jordan Bombs ‘Militant Camp’ In Southern Syria After Church Attack, High Death Toll

Jordan’s response to the last Friday terror attack on an Orthodox Church in Hammoud, Karak – south of the capital Amman – has been somewhat unexpected. On Monday the country’s air force carried out a major bombing raid on southern Syria.

There were three gunmen that had targeted St. George church during a funeral. The attackers killed at least eight people and wounded around 40 more. Jordan’s King Abdullah had ordered security forces on ‌Saturday to respond with an “iron fist” amid the hunt for the killers.

Since then, the government announced it arrested the trio of suspects, including two brothers and their ⁠brother-in-law, after a shootout at what was described as their hideout.

But in addition to the arrests, “Jordan said on Tuesday it had killed more than 20 Daesh militants in airstrikes on southern Syria ​the previous evening, launched in response to a deadly church attack in Jordan that authorities linked to militants operating across the border,” according to Reuters.

But the Syrian side, which has strongly condemned the incursion and violation of sovereignty, indicated that “the strikes killed seven people, including three children and a woman. Jordan regretted the civilian casualties, Government Communication Minister Mohammed al-Momani ‌said in a post ‌on X.”

Amman further said that the target of the air raid was a ‘militant hideout’ and that the suspects in the church attack were linked to “terrorist groups” based there.

The Jordanian government has elsewhere described that targeted group as members of ISIS, and offered a far higher death toll than the Syrian side, saying that “more than 20 Islamic State militants” were taken out.

On the prior terror assault of the church last week, Priest Theodoros Soueiss described that “A sense of panic took hold among those present. The gunfire was indiscriminate, and you never knew where a bullet might land.”

Reported scenes of the night time bombing of southern Syria:

That among the first actions taken by the Jordanian government was to bomb southern Syria is deeply ironic and hypocritical considering the recent history of conflict and Amman’s role. For years during the prior Syrian proxy war, Jordan played host to CIA and Pentagon training programs for anti-Assad militants, most which turned out to be jihadists. This in turn fueled the persecution of the region’s ancient Christian community.