Jordan bombs southern Syria after church massacre in Amman

Jordan's air force has bombed what it calls a militant hideout in southern Syria, killing more than 20 ISIS militants according to Amman, in retaliation for Friday's attack on St. George Orthodox church in Hammoud, south of the capital, where three gunmen killed at least eight mourners at a funeral and wounded around 40.

Jordanian authorities arrested the three suspects — two brothers and their brother-in-law — after a shootout at their hideout, and say they were linked to terrorist groups based across the border. King Abdullah ordered security forces to respond with an "iron fist." Damascus condemned the raid as a violation of sovereignty and said the strikes killed seven people, including three children and a woman. Government Communication Minister Mohammed al-Momani expressed regret for the civilian casualties on X.

The priest at the targeted church, Theodoros Soueiss, described indiscriminate gunfire during the funeral: "You never knew where a bullet might land." RT posted footage purporting to show the nighttime raid, with a massive blast lighting the sky over southern Syria.

The strike settles into a pattern. During the long Syrian proxy war, Jordan hosted CIA and Pentagon training programs for anti-Assad militants — most of whom turned out to be jihadists. With Assad gone, the border zone has become a strip where Amman treats cross-border punishment expeditions as standard practice, unimpeded by whatever government now claims authority in Damascus. Who actually controls Syria's southern provinces, and how Israeli and Turkish interests mesh with Jordanian raids in the same geography, remains the open question.

For now, the answer to a church massacre in Jordan has been delivered by airstrikes in a neighboring state that cannot stop them.