Jordan launched airstrikes in Syria Monday in revenge for an attack on a Greek Orthodox church last week that killed nine people
Jordan said more than 20 Islamic State militants were killed in the attacks, which took place in southern Syria after Jordan linked the church attack to militants operating on both sides of the Syria-Jordan border, across the border, according to Reuters.
Syria, which bristled at the raid, said seven people, including a woman and three children, were killed in the attack.
Jordanian officials said the attack “resulted in the killing and wounding of many members of these terrorist groups and the destruction of a number of their vehicles,” according to the U.K. Guardian.
Although Jordan sought to claim Syria knew about the attack, Syrian officials said they did not, and closed the border crossing with Jordan.
On Monday, Jordanian authorities arrested three men in the attack that wounded more than two dozen people during a funeral.
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No group took responsibility for the attack or declared a motive behind it.
“They only represent themselves,” Maj Gen Obaidallah Abd Rabbo Al-Maayta said of the men arrested.
Jordan’s interior minister, Mazen al-Faraya, said the attack was due to “a terroristic, extremist way of thinking”.
“If this way of thinking is not resolved, we will see incidents like this again,” he said.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II had ordered officials to respond with “an iron fist” in a majority Muslim nation that preaches tolerance for its Christian minority.
“We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated,” he said Monday.
Relatives of the victims said the arrests brought them some relief.
“Despite the profound and immense tragedy, what happened today has eased our grief, and the grief of the Jordanian people – not just for us, the families of the martyrs,” Khaled al-Borqan, a relative of three people who died in the church attack, said.
“The security services have fulfilled their duties, resulting in the capture of those who carried out this terrorist act,” Al-Faraya said, according to CBS News.
“They put up fierce resistance against the security forces, but were ultimately subdued and taken into custody, having sustained severe injuries.”
He said the men arrested “were identified early on in the wake of the terrorist incident, and the security services employed all the means at their disposal to apprehend them.”
The Public Security Directorate said, “Terrorism has no place among us,” and that the three had met their “just fate.”
This article originally appeared on The Western Journal and is reposted with permission.
