Jordan strikes armed groups in Syria it says tied to church attack; Damascus: Civilians killed

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan on Monday night carried out airstrikes against armed groups in Syria in retaliation for Friday’s attack on a Greek Orthodox Church in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed nine people, the Jordanian air force said in a statement.

It said the operation “resulted in the killing and wounding of many members of these terrorist groups and the destruction of a number of their vehicles.” It did not specify who the groups were or the precise location of the strikes.

The operation sparked an outcry in Syria, where officials said the Jordanian operation killed several civilians and was carried out without notifying Syrian authorities.

Syria’s civil defense agency said it had recovered the bodies of seven people killed in strikes in the southern Daraa and Sweida provinces. Five members of one family, including three children and a woman, were killed together in a strike that hit a tent in rural Daraa province and three other family members were injured, it said. An 80-year-old man and a 60-year-old man were killed in separate strikes, it said.

The Syrian government said the Jordanian operation took place “without prior coordination or notification with the Syrian side.” It said Syrian authorities were investigating the circumstances of the incident and had opened communication channels with Jordan to discuss the situation.

Syria’s General Authority for Ports and Customs later announced the closure of Syria’s main border crossing with Jordan.

Earlier on Monday, Jordanian authorities arrested three men for last week’s attack, which also wounded more than two dozen people. The arrests followed a dawn shootout, and all three men were wounded, officials said.

The attack struck the Greek Orthodox Church during a funeral in Karak, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the capital, Amman, on Friday. Karak is home to a minority Christian population.

The attack shocked the nation, and Jordan declared three days of mourning for the victims. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and the attackers’ motive remained unknown.

Later on Monday, the Public Security Directorate identified the three arrested men as brothers Hazzah Zaidan Mohammad and Mishal Zaidan Mohammad, and their brother-in-law Ahmad Sami Hussein. All three are Jordanian. They were taken into custody in Karak, south of Amman.

The agency’s chief described the gunmen as takfiri, a term used for Sunni militants, but said they were not tied to any organized group.

“They only represent themselves,” Maj. Gen. Obaidallah Abd Rabbo Al-Maayta told a news conference. He also said a large cache of munitions was found in the abandoned house where Jordanian forces apprehended the men.

Jordan’s Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya said the attack by the three was the result of “a terroristic, extremist way of thinking.”

“If this way of thinking is not resolved, we will see incidents like this again,” he told reporters.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II had ordered authorities to respond with “an iron fist” against what he called the outlaws of Islam and anyone attempting to undermine the unity of the Jordanian people.

“We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Relatives of the victims said the arrests brought them some relief.

“Despite the profound and immense tragedy, what happened today has eased our grief — and the grief of the Jordanian people — not just for us, the families of the martyrs,” Khaled al-Borqan, himself a survivor of the attack and a relative of three of the people killed, told Al-Mamlaka.

“Despite the sadness and pain, the news brought us joy,” Fares Halaseh, an uncle of one of the victims and a survivor of the attack, told the TV station.

But the pain remains, he added. “We will not forget this agony for years to come.”