Extremist expansion in southern Syria puts Jordan on guard
The expansion of radical Islamist factions in southern Syria has raised concerns from Jordan that these groups would pledge allegiance to the Islamic State and seek to establish an emirate on its northern borders.
The Khalid Ibn al-Walid Army, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) in June 2016, took over villages in the Syrian south Feb. 16 after breaking free from the siege that opposition Syrian factions had imposed on it for years in the Yarmouk Basin in Daraa’s countryside. This occurred a few kilometers from bordering Jordanian villages, and there has since been increased activity at the northern Jordanian border.
On Feb. 16, the Khalid Ibn al-Walid Army widely deployed its troops and took advantage of the Syrian factions’ preoccupation with the ongoing battles since Feb. 12 — otherwise known as “Death Rather than Humiliation” — between the Syrian regime and Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham (Liberation of the Levant Committee) in the south.
