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Destruction suspected to be caused by Jordanian airstrikes near the town of Suweida

Photo: Suwayda 24 / REUTERS

Air strikes in southwestern Syria have reportedly killed several people.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least nine deaths.

The victims are said to include four women and two children.

According to the Observatory, these were supposed to have been strikes by the Jordanian Air Force.

The information cannot be independently verified.

Jordan has not yet commented on the incidents.

According to media reports, the attacks took place on Thursday night in the region around the city of Suweida.

Rescue teams searched for survivors in the rubble.

The air strikes are said to have targeted two residential buildings and occurred around the same time, reported the local Syrian news portal Suwayda24.

Hundreds of kilometers long border

It would not be the first strike on foreign territory attributed to Jordan.

According to the Observatory, the Jordanian air force had already attacked several targets of suspected drug smugglers in neighboring Syria at the beginning of January, killing at least three people.

This information cannot be independently verified either.

Jordan has been fighting drug trafficking from Syria for years.

Clashes regularly occur along the 362-kilometer-long northern border as smugglers use the country as a transit point for drug smuggling.

The Syrian regime around dictator Bashar al-Assad is apparently heavily involved in the trade in synthetic drugs.

Experts assume that the Syrian power elite would not be able to survive without the income from smuggling the stimulant Captagon.

According to the Observatory, the people now killed were not involved in drug smuggling.

According to the AP news agency, the activists suggested that the attack could have been based on incorrect information from local informants.

International investigators now consider Syria to be one of the world's largest Captagon manufacturers.

It is estimated that the trade in amphetamine tablets has become an illegal enterprise worth billions.

The drug can be highly addictive and is particularly common in the Gulf States.

fek/AP/Reuters/dpa