Jordan says it foiled drug smuggling attempt from Syria

(Reuters) - Jordan said it had foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs into the country from Syria on Monday, according to the state news agency Petra.

Quoting a military source, Petra said several smugglers were injured in clashes with security forces before retreating back into Syrian territory. The amount of the seized drugs was not disclosed.

War-ravaged Syria has become the region's main site for the mass production of the addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon, with Jordan a key transit route to the oil-rich Gulf states, Western anti-narcotics officials say.

Jordanian officials, like their Western allies, say that Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group and pro-Iranian militias who control much of southern Syria are behind a surge in the multi-billion-dollar drugs and weapons trade. Iran and Hezbollah deny the allegations.

Since last year, Jordan's army has conducted several pre-emptive airstrikes inside Syria that Jordanian officials say targeted militias linked to the drug trade and their facilities, in a bid to stem a rise in cross-border incursions.

(Reporting by Hatem Maher)

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