Jordan said on Tuesday that airstrikes on Syria had killed around 20 Islamic State militants as it acknowledged that there had also been a number of civilian casualties. The Jordanian armed forces launched a wave of strikes against southern Syria on Monday evening, targeting what it said were "hideouts of terrorist organisations." "RJAF fighter jets destroyed a number of terrorist locations, killing and wounding several terrorists and destroying their equipment," the military said in a statement, adding that the operation had been carried out "in retaliation" for a recent attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Karak that reportedly killed nine people. Government spokesperson Mohammad Al-Momani said the operation had resulted in the deaths of more than 20 IS operatives as well as the destruction of a "major" weapons depot.
He said the strikes had been conducted following intelligence on "imminent terrorist threats." Al-Momani added that Jordan had "avoided" civilian sites and that it regretted "unintended casualties" as he stressed that the country had "deep respect" for the Syrian state and people. Syria's foreign ministry has condemned the strikes, calling them an "unacceptable violation and breach of Syrian airspace without any prior coordination." Syria's civil defence agency put the death toll at seven people. In the Daraa Governorate, an airstrike killed five people from the same family - three children, a woman and a man - the agency said in a post on social media.
An 80-year-old was also killed in strikes on Daraa while a 60-year-old was killed in the Suwayda Governorate, it said. "We were asleep when the missile hit us. My mother, my older brother and his three children -- two boys and a girl -- were killed," said Nassouh al-Salim in the village of Al-Taf in the Daraa region, per the news agency.
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