Jordan's military says four drug smugglers killed on border with Syria

The Jordanian army said it killed four drug smugglers who tried to infiltrate the kingdom from Syria on Thursday, in the first such deaths on the border since the Assad regime was toppled in December and replaced with a new government seeking better ties with Amman.

The four were part of a group that was intercepted as they tried to enter Jordan under the cover of bad weather and early morning fog, the army said.

“The clash resulted in the death of four smugglers and the retreat of the rest into the Syrian interior,” it said.

It said “large quantities” of narcotics were seized along with an automatic weapon, without giving specifics.

The Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham posted its troops along parts of the 360km border with Jordan, a major conduit for the Captagon drug trade, after leading the removal of former president Bashar Al Assad on December 8.

Days later, Jordan's Interior Minister Mazen Faraya said that the drug smuggling diminished as a result of the political changes in Syria. However, the authorities have since announced several interceptions of cross-border drug shipments.

Last month, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Syria's new leader Ahmad Al Shara discussed the issue in Amman and agreed that the two governments should co-operate on tackling drugs and weapons smuggling, according to the Jordanian Royal Court.

Jordan re-established limited ties with Mr Al Assad in recent years with the aim of resuming legal flows of goods and people under what officials called a step-for-step approach to solving problems emanating from Syria, and from the ousted regime's Iran-backed militia allies.

But Jordan did not see enough co-operation from the Assad regime on drug smuggling and border security. Jordanian support for Mr Al Assad remained limited, especially in his wider goal of lifting western sanctions and obtaining funding for reconstruction projects in regime-controlled areas.

Since Mr Al Assad's removal, Jordan has hosted an international conference on Syria and has said it is willing to help rebuild Syria and contribute to its stability as the nation recovers from nearly 14 years of civil war.