Jordanian military kills 27 in shoot-out with Syrian smugglers | News | Al Jazeera

The Jordanian troops have killed 27 suspected smugglers attempting to enter the country from neighbouring Syria, they said, adding that some others also carrying drugs fled back into Syria.

A report on the Jordanian army’s website on Thursday said it thwarted several suspected attempts to smuggle drugs from Syria, and that large quantities of narcotics were seized in separate interventions where several people were wounded.

The army said it also found large quantities of drugs hidden in Syrian trucks passing through Jordan’s main border crossing.

It added it was “continuing to apply the newly established rules of engagement and will strike with an iron fist and deal with force and firmness with any infiltration or smuggling attempts to protect the borders”.

Earlier this month, Jordan’s military said an army officer was killed in a shoot-out with smugglers along the long porous border it shares with Syria.

Jordan is home to more than 650,000 Syrian refugees who fled the civil war that has raged there for more than 10 years...

-