AMMAN (Dispatches) – The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it killed several smugglers during dawn clashes that left one of its soldiers dead as a large group of drug dealers got into a conflict near the border with Syria.
The army said smugglers, who had infiltrated under cover of heavy fog, fled in the incident only a week after three smugglers were shot dead trying to smuggle large quantities of captagon pills - a mix of amphetamines.
“A clash took place with tens of smugglers who fired at border guards and exploited poor visibility and heavy fog to cross the border. The engagement killed a number of them and the rest forced to flee,” the army statement said.
The army did not specify where along the 370-km (230-mile) border the incursion took place but Syrian sources said the incident occurred in an area northeast of the city of Mafraq in Jordan.
“We act forcefully to protect our borders and prevent any attempt to undermine our national security,” the army statement said.
Jordan is a main transit route to the Persian Gulf states for an amphetamine known as captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington and its European allies say.
Jordan has been promised more military aid to bolster security on the border, where Washington has given around $1 billion to establish border posts, Jordanian officials say.
Jordan, impatient with what it says are broken promises to curb the drug war, had taken matters into its own hands and conducted several strikes inside Syrian territory this year against drugs factories, local and Western intelligence sources said.
Officials expect the smuggling attempts, which also have used drones, to spike during the coming winter months.
Damascus says it is doing its best to curb smuggling.