Jordan shares a 375-km porous border with war-torn Syria, interspersed with informal crossings used by Syrian refugees.
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It is unclear if the strikes on Tuesday at Hadalat, a makeshift camp for internally displaced people in Syria’s southern desert, were carried out by Syrian or Russian warplanes.
The raid wounded at least 40 more Syrians, Reuters reported.
Daraa, near the Jordan-Syria border, has faced an increase in shelling and mortar strikes in recent weeks. Cousin says more than 100,000 Syrians are believed to be stranded in the area, up from several thousand past year. The Jordanian government has faced repeated pressure from the United Nations to allow humanitarian supplies across the border to them, though such deals have been intermittent, at best.
The Free Syrian Army is accusing Russian Federation of carrying out airstrikes near the Hadalat Refugee Camp, along the Syria-Jordan border.
Muhammad Hamed / Reuters Rebels and a senior Western diplomat said Russian jets hit the Hadalat area near Syria’s border with Jordan where hundreds of refugees are sheltering, pictured above in May. Jordanian authorities bar their entry into the country on security grounds.
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Jordan maintains that these people may have links to the Islamic State (ISIS) and though it is trying to screen them, the process is slow. An estimated 60,000 Syrian refugees are living in an area that is a no-man’s land on the Syrian side of the border, and Jordan has refused to allow them to enter. The kingdom’s decision has worsened the situation for the Syrians at the border, who are now running out of basic supplies.
