Jordan army says it detected suspicious aerial movements near Syria border

AMMAN (Reuters) -The Jordanian army said on Monday its air defence radar system had detected suspicious aerial movements from an unknown source along the border with Syria.

Jets believed to be Jordanian had been heard hovering over the Jordanian city of Irbid and areas near the border crossing with Syria, witnesses said

The army said an air force squadron had flown to ensure the airspace was not under any threat. It did not say from where the movements came.

"The airforce responded to an alert of radar systems that monitored aerial movements whose source is not known," the army statement said.

Last January three U.S. service members were killed and as many as 34 wounded after a drone attack on a U.S outpost in Jordan that Washington linked to Iranian-backed militants.

Jordan's has requested Patriot air defence systems from Washington saying it fears being caught in the crossfire if the war in Gaza pulls in Iran and its well-armed regional militias on the kingdom's borders.

Since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October, Iraq and Syria have witnessed tit-for-tat attacks between hardline Iran-backed armed groups and U.S. forces stationed in the region.

Officials say Jordan's government which, signed a defence deal with the United States in January 2021, wants to bolster its defences against Iranian-backed militias building up their strength on Jordan's borders with Iraq and Syria.

There have been several missiles fired by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group at Israel that were downed in the area of the Red Sea city of Eilat, which is located next to Jordan's border and its city of Aqaba.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-KhalidiEditing by Chris Reese)

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi