BEIRUT — Jordanian troops killed 27 suspected armed drug smugglers and wounded a number of others attempting to enter the country from Syria, the Jordanian military said Thursday — the deadliest encounter so far in a rising wave of confrontations on Jordan’s northern border.
The deaths come almost two weeks after a Jordanian army captain was killed and three other military personnel were wounded when smugglers shot at an army outpost as they tried to cross. That attack prompted a change in the rules of engagement governing smuggling operations, a Jordanian army official said in a statement Thursday.
The army “will strike with an iron fist and deal with absolute force and firmness any infiltration or smuggling attempts to protect the border,” said the official, whose name was not given.
