Syria rejects Jordan border crossing seizure by militants

Syria has rejected reports that the country’s main border crossing to Jordan has come under the control of militants.

Head of Syria’s customs department Majdi al-Hakmieh said on Tuesday that Jaber border crossing, also called Nasib crossing, is under full control of Syrian government forces.

Syrian forces and military equipment have been deployed to the area to maintain the security of the crossing, according to the Syrian official.

On Monday, Jordan closed the crossing due to clashes between the militants and Syrian troops.

“The border post is effectively closed because there have been clashes since yesterday and they are continuing,” Jordan’s Information Minister Samih Maaytah told Reuters on Monday.

Jordan, which has undergone convulsions since the wave of anti-regime protests began in the region, has had a fragile political stability. However, it has not fallen behind other regional Arab states, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia in aiding the militants in their attempts to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

US military sources told Fox New on Monday that American Special Operations forces and Special Force troops, tasked to work with US intelligence agents, have been training anti-Syria militants in Jordan for months.

The program involves classes of about 50 to 60 militants trained by 100 American forces.

Jordan has also been involved in the recent shipping of thousands of tons of weapons from Croatia to the militants in Syria through Turkey as well as its own soil.

Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List reported in early March that 3,000 tons of weapons, paid for by Saudi Arabia as requested by the US, have been airlifted by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari planes from Zagreb airport in 75 planeloads to the militants through Jordan and Turkey since November.

The weapons include rocket launchers, recoil-less guns and the M79 anti-tank weapons, according to various reports.

The Croatian paper added that Russian-made Ilyushin jets from Jordanian International Air Cargo have regularly been seen in Zagreb airport in recent months.

The report also said that the US and some European countries, especially the UK, had coordinated the shipments, adding that the weapons also came “from several other European countries including Britain.”