Jordan armed forces downs drone attempting to cross Jordanian territory, state news agency says

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CAIRO (Reuters) -Jordanian armed forces thwarted an attempt by a drone to cross the kingdom’s territory, Jordan’s state news agency Petra said on Tuesday, without clarifying the direction from which it was coming.

“The border guard forces … shot it [drone] down and it was transferred to the specialised authorities,” Petra said citing an official source in the army’s leadership.

Petra also quoted the source as saying: “We are dealing firmly with various threats on the kingdom’s borders.”

Jordan neighbours Syria and Iraq – both countries where Iranian proxy forces operate – and also is next door to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Jordanian statement came shortly after Lebanon’s Hezbollah group accused Israel of detonating pagers across Lebanon, killing at least eight people and wounding nearly 3,000 others including Iran’s envoy to Beirut.

In April, the kingdom shot down Iranian drones flying over to Israel.

More recently in September, a gunman from Jordan killed three Israelis at the Allenby Bridge border crossing in the occupied West Bank before security forces shot him dead.

(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha and Yomna Ehab; Editing by Mark Porter and Sandra Maler)