Jordan carried out a wave of strikes in the Druze-majority Syrian province of Sweida, the Jordanian military and Syrian state media announced on Sunday.
Local sources told Syrian media that the Jordanian army “likely… targeted a headquarters containing weapons and drugs controlled by rebel groups in the village of Shahba in Sweida.”
The Jordanian army says it “carried out a Jordanian deterrent operation targeting several locations used by arms and drug traffickers along the Kingdom’s northern border” and swore to “continue to deal proactively, decisively, and deterrently with any threat to the security and sovereignty of the Kingdom and will dedicate their capabilities and resources to confronting it with full force and determination.”
The series of airstrikes targeted at least five locations, including warehouses in the Syrian town of Arman, sources told a reporter for Agence France-Presse.
Strikes come amid larger effort to disband Captagon trade
The Jordanian military has been known to carry out strikes against drug smugglers in Syria, and the latest strikes come amid a larger effort to disband the Captagon trade, which was once used to strengthen the Assad regime.
Some experts have estimated that as much as 80% of the world’s supply of the amphetamine-like stimulant originates from Syria, and tackling the country’s illegal drug trade has been a major talking point of the new Syrian regime.
Syria’s Interior Ministry announced on Saturday that the anti-narcotics department dismantled a smuggling network and destroyed a number of drug manufacturing facilities near Lebanon’s border.
As part of the operation, the ministry claimed to have seized nearly a million Captagon pills and one kilogram of hashish, which it said was being transmitted through Syria from Lebanon, for distribution to other neighboring countries.