Car bomb kills Jordanian soldiers outside refugee camp near Syrian border

A car bomb killed several Jordanian soldiers and wounded others outside a refugee camp near the Syrian border on Tuesday, the army said.

“At 5.30am a car bomb exploded in the Rukban district opposite the Syrian refugee camp, killing or wounding several Jordanian soldiers,” a short statement said.

The army said that it had destroyed several “enemy” vehicles at the border, but said it would give no further details until later in the day.

The attack came in the remote desert northeast of the kingdom where tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have sought shelter in a makeshift camp just across an informal border crossing between the two countries.

A flare-up in the five-year civil war in Syria sparked a new influx of refugees in the area last month, with nearly 5,500 arriving at Rukban within days in early May.

Jordan says it hosting nearly 1.4 million refugees, of whom 630,000 are registered with the United Nations.