‘Jihadist’ killed in attempt to cross into Syria

AMMAN — Border guards opened fire and killed an Arab national attempting to cross into Syria on Friday after he failed to respond to “repeated warnings” from security forces, according to the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF).

Jordanian officials declined to disclose the nationality or age of the deceased.

The incident comes less than two days after border forces clashed with a group of alleged jihadists attempting to cross from Syria into Jordan. 

According to Islamist sources, the man was a member of Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat Al Nusra coalition.

Hard-line Jordanian and Syrian Islamists identified the deceased as Mohammed Abu Baker, a Saudi Arabian who had been recruited by Al Nusra to join Islamist militias in their fight against Syrian regime forces.

Islamists claim that over 15 foreign and Jordanian jihadists have been injured or killed along the 370-kilometre border with Syria over the past two weeks.

Over 2,200 Jordanians currently serve alongside Islamist militias in Syria, the majority under the ranks of Al Nusra coalition or its rival, former Al Qaeda affiliate Islamic Sate of Iraq and the Levant.

On Saturday, an army helicopter destroyed two cars that crossed the border from Syria, laden with “a large amount of contraband”, a JAF source said in a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The source added that border guards received 263 Syrian refugees, including five injured people, over the past 24 hours.

Royal Medical Services personnel administered first aid to the injured and took them to the nearest hospital, while border guards moved the rest to refugee camps.