A boy, identified as 17-year-old Ali Reda al-Rbeidan from Ara village in western rural Suwayda governorate, was shot dead on June 26, 2024, by Jordanian military personnel during a drug smuggling operation from Syria to Jordan on the Syrian-Jordanian borders.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) believes that the appropriate steps, including issuing an adequate warning, that should have preceded the shooting were not taken. The area from the Syrian side is under the control of Syrian regime forces who continue to facilitate, and benefit from, drug smuggling.
Narcotics in Syria has become an industry sponsored and regulated by the ruling regime. As such, it is an exercise in fruitlessness to demand that the same regime combats narcotics. Meanwhile, we call on the Jordanian authorities to launch an investigation into this incident and make its findings known to the public. The Jordanian authorities must take all possible measures before unjustifiably opening fire, unless for self-defense in case of a shootout. Yet, we received no information about a shootout taking place in this case. Solutions must be brought about to end drug trafficking from Syria; most importantly stop the attempts to re-normalize the Syrian regime, namely the primary manufacturer and trafficker of drugs in Syria.
