Car bomb strikes Syrian refugee camp on Jordan border

A suicide car bomb ripped through a Syrian refugee camp on Syria's border with Jordan on Sunday evening, injuring at least five Syrian opposition fighters, activists told The New Arab.

The blast hit an opposition guarding post manned by the Free Syrian Army’s Jaish Ahrar al-Ashair on the western perimeter of the Rukban refugee camp.

“The bombing targeted a guarding post at the camp’s perimeter, after Jaish Ahrar al-Ashair recently receivd delivery of humanitarian and military aid,” Omar al-Bunyah, a local activist told The New Arab.

“Only rebels fighters were injured in the blast,” Bunyah added.

Jordan last week allowed aid to be dropped by carne to the sealed desert camp, where more than 75,000 Syrian are stranded in dire conditions.

Jordanian authorities claim the camp has been infiltrated by criminals, smugglers and extremists, and a government spokesman even described it as an Islamic State group “enclave”.

The kingdom sealed its border with Syria in June, after a deadly cross-border attack claimed by IS extremists killed seven members of the Jordanian security forces.

This left thousands of Syrians stuck between a war zone and a sealed border, without regular access to food, water and medicine.

Conditions have become increasingly dire, with aid officials reporting the spread of disease, including whooping cough and hepatitis.

Close to 5 million Syrians have fled the civil war in their country since 2011, including nearly 660,000 who settled in Jordan.

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