Syria suspends traffic at Nasib crossing with Jordan after airstrikes in the south
Key Facts
Syria’s General Authority for Ports and Customs suspended passenger and trade traffic in both directions through the Nasib crossing with Jordan following Jordanian airstrikes in southern Syria, Reuters reported via Swissinfo. The authority attributed the decision to “current conditions and developments on the ground in Daraa province,” without announcing how long the suspension would last. The closure of the main crossing followed airstrikes that Amman said targeted sites belonging to groups it describes as terrorist. The Jordanian Armed Forces announced that it carried out the operation on 26 October, describing it as coordinated with the Syrian government. Damascus, however, said the operation took place without coordination or prior notification from the Syrian side, leaving the two accounts at odds over the communication that preceded the strikes.
The Jordanian Armed Forces said the Royal Air Force carried out “Jordanian Deterrence – Hamoud,” targeting hideouts of terrorist groups in southern Syria. It added that the aircraft destroyed a number of sites, killed and wounded a number of militants, and destroyed their equipment. Amman linked the operation to Friday’s attack on a Greek Orthodox church in the city of Karak in southern Jordan. Karak is about 90 kilometres south of the capital, Amman, according to the Associated Press.
In a separate account of the strike toll, Syria’s Civil Defence said it recovered the bodies of 7 people killed in strikes in Daraa and Sweida provinces. It said a strike in the Daraa countryside killed 5 members of one family, including 3 children and a woman, and wounded 3 other family members. It also said an 80-year-old man and a 60-year-old man were killed in separate strikes. The toll was provided by the Syrian civil defence authority, while the Jordanian Armed Forces said the operation caused deaths and injuries among the targeted groups. The differing descriptions of the victims and targets reflect separate accounts of the airstrikes, with no joint statement detailing them.
The suspension of traffic through Nasib followed an expansion in truck movements on the Jordanian side of the border. A total of 157,729 Jordanian and foreign trucks crossed the Jaber crossing in both directions during the first four months of 2026, compared with 139,299 trucks in the same period of 2025, according to data from the Association of Clearance and Cargo Transport Companies cited by Petra. In September, Jordan expanded the freight yard at Jaber to accommodate about 200 loaded trucks, as part of a plan covering freight and passenger traffic. Jordanian and Syrian officials also agreed in March to allow trucks from each country to carry goods of local origin to the other country without transferring the cargo at the border. These arrangements underscore the volume of transport linked to the border crossing.
The Syrian government said it was investigating the circumstances of the operation and had opened channels of communication with Jordan to discuss the situation, after reiterating that the strikes were carried out without coordination or prior notification. The Syrian authority did not announce when passenger and trade traffic through Nasib would resume. On the Jordanian side, development work at the Jaber crossing includes widening vehicle and bus lanes and equipping a building to process bus passengers’ passports, with the aim of facilitating movement and easing pressure on existing facilities. Jordanian officials said lanes for vehicles and buses arriving from Syria had been widened to reduce congestion and facilitate passage. The reopening of Nasib will remain tied to developments on the ground in Daraa, the reason the Syrian authority gave for the suspension.