The Jordanian army said it shot down two drones launched from Syria in a week including a drone loaded with weapons from Syrian territory on Friday, according to the official Petra news agency.
“Border guard forces, in coordination with military security agencies, detected an attempt to illegally cross the border between Syria and Jordan by a drone, and it was shot down inside Jordanian territory”, said an official military source within the general command of the Jordanian army quoted by Petra. “After the drone was shot down, officers found it was carrying multiple weapons, and they were transferred to the proper authorities,” the source added.
It is the second time this week that Jordan has said it shot down an unmanned aircraft flying into its territory from neighboring Syria.
The army announced on Tuesday that it had shot down a drone transporting drugs from Syria.
According to Reuters, Jordan has accused pro-Iranian militias it says are protected by units within the Syrian army, of smuggling drugs across its borders into markets around the world and the Gulf.
Syria says it is doing its best to curb drug trafficking especially after the recent normalization of relations between Damascus and Riyadh, and to deny the role played by Iran-backed militias linked to its army and security forces in this traffic.
The eradication of Captagon trafficking, a drug widely used in the Gulf countries, as well as Iranian interference through Syrian and Lebanese militias, were among the main demands of the Saudi authorities before any normalization with the regime of Bashar al- Asad.
Roger Barake, with Petra and Reuters news agencies
