Six killed and 14 injured in remote desert area where Syrian refugees were being screened for suspected Isis links

Jordan has sealed its northern and eastern borders after six soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing outside a Syrian refugee camp, in a remote area where hundreds have been held for screening over suspected links to Islamic State.

King Abdullah II vowed to hit back “with an iron fist” as officials in Amman said as well as those killed 14 others were injured when an explosives-laden truck was detonated at an army post near Rukban, on the isolated desert border with Syria. The dead and injured were border guards and officials of the public security department.

The suicide bomber drove out from behind a berm and evaded gunfire to reach the post, the army said. The area was later declared a closed military zone.

The border closure is likely to disrupt aid to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees stranded on the frontier. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Jordan is a leading member of the US-led coalition fighting Isis in Syria and Iraq, and has been the target of jihadi attacks before.

“Such heinous terrorist acts will only make us more determined to carry on with our fight against terrorism and its groups who plotted in the dark against the men who protect the country and its borders,” the king said. The foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, also condemned the attack.

Approximately 50,000 people are believed to be in Rukban and other camps in no man’s land, stranded between the borders as they await entry to Jordan. Jordan admits an average of 50-100 people per day, giving priority to the elderly, sick and injured.



In February Abdullah warned that there were Isis elements among the refugees, explaining the long waiting times and security checks the Syrians must undergo. Jordan has faced criticism for the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the camps, as food and medical supplies ran short.

The attack immediately raised the spectre of the risks to a small and vulnerable country of the war raging next door without any prospect of it ending in the foreseeable future.



Jordan has kept a low profile politically since the start of the Syrian crisis. It has ensured that rebel military operations against Bashar al-Assad’s government that are carried out from its territory kept a low profile, even when the US and Britain, its closest western allies, were involved.

The worst recent incident was on 6 June, when a gunman killed five Jordanian intelligence officers in a Palestinian refugee camp north of Amman. A suspect was arrested but a gagging order is in place covering details of the attack while the investigation continues.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have sought shelter at two remote desert camps in the north-east – one at Rukban and another at Handalat further west.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe on 23 May 2016 shows Rukban camp. Photograph: AP

A flare-up in the five-year civil war in Syria sparked a new influx of refugees last month, with nearly 5,500 arriving at Rukban in the space of a few days. Jordan’s refusal to allow the refugees further inside its territory has been criticised by the office of the UN high commissioner for refugees.

Jordan says it is hosting nearly 1.4 million Syrian refugees, of whom 630,000 are registered with the UN. The huge numbers have placed a massive strain on the kingdom’s economy and resources as well as raising security concerns.

In December 2005, Isis’s predecessor al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in three Amman hotels which killed 60 people and wounded dozens, an incident that was dubbed “Jordan’s 9/11”.



Jordan began carrying carried out airstrikes against Isis in Syria and one of its pilots was captured by the jihadis when his plane went down in December 2014. In February 2015, Isis released gruesome footage of Maaz al-Kassasbeh being burned alive in a cage. His murder prompted Jordan to extend airstrikes against Isis to Iraq, where it is the only Arab coalition member participating in the bombing campaign.

Jordan has also opened up the Prince Hassan airbase, north-east of other members of the coalition taking part in the air war.

In March, the authorities announced they had foiled an Isis plot to carry out attacks in an operation that led to the deaths of seven militants. According to sources close to Islamists, almost 4,000 Jordanians have joined jihadi groups in Iraq and Syria, where an estimated 420 have been killed since 2011.



