Car bomb attack on Jordan border troops kills 6, wounds 14

Jordan declared its border regions with Iraq and Syria “closed military zones” after a suicide bombing on Tuesday killed six soldiers and injured 14 others.

Fourteen soldiers were also wounded in the attack, a security official told Agence France-Presse, adding that it was a “preliminary toll” and the number of dead might rise.

Jordan is a staunch ally of the United States and is taking part in the US-led campaign in Syria against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

No information on the motives or affiliation of the attacker has been released by the Jordanian authorities.

“We stand together with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the common struggle against terrorism and violent extremism”.

“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”, Abdullah said.

The Syrian civil is in its fifth year, but this attack is notable because it marks the resumption of Syrian hostilities against Jordan for the first time since the war began 2011.

“According to the latest reports, a vehicle bomb exploded at the border checkpoint near a Syrian refugee camp”.

“Terrorists strike again this time against our border guards”, the minister said in a tweet Tuesday.

Six Jordanian guards have been killed and another 14 wounded in a auto bomb attack at the Jordan-Syria border.

“Many Jordanians believe very strongly that the country should not be involved in the Syrian war in any way”, said Labib Kamhawi, a prominent Jordanian political analyst.

Jordan’s state TV says called the incident a “cowardly terrorist attack”.

According to sources close to Islamists in Jordan, nearly 4,000 Jordanians have joined militant groups in Iraq and Syria, where an estimated 420 have been killed since 2011.

Hasan Abu Hanien, an expert on extremist groups said the latest attack was a message from ISIL to Jordan.

Jordan closed those border crossings in 2013.

A flare-up in the five-year civil war in Syria sparked a new influx of refugees in the area last month, with almost 5,500 arriving at Rukban in the space of a few days in early May.

“Any vehicle and personnel movement within these areas that move without prior coordination will be treated as enemy targets and dealt with firmly and without leniency”, reads a statement issued by the Jordanian army.

The bomb attack happened at 5.30am today, near a security border post where Syrian refugees fleeing the country are held while their paperwork is processed. “What’s going on in Syria is not a philosophical exercise for the Jordanians”.