At least 10 people, including children, have been killed in suspected Jordanian air strikes in south-western Syria, local activists and media say.
Jordan and its Western allies say highly organised and heavily armed Iran-backed militias operating in government-controlled areas of Syria are behind a surge in smuggling into the kingdom, particularly of the amphetamine Captagon, for which there is huge demand in Gulf Arab states.
The activist-run Suwayda 24 news website reported that the latest air strikes happened early on Thursday in residential areas of Arman and nearby Malah.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said at least nine people were killed in the strikes on Arman, including five women and two children, and that a sixth woman was trapped beneath rubble.
On 8 January, Suwayda 24 said three people were killed in two separate strikes that hit a house and a farm in the town of Shaab as well as a barn in Arman.
One of the website’s editors, Ryan Marouf, told Reuters news agency the following day that the strike appeared to be an “escalation by Jordan of its war against drug dealers”.
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