Jordanian guard wounded, three smugglers killed on Syria border - military

Three drug smugglers were killed and a Jordanian frontier guard was wounded in clashes along the border with Syria, the Jordanian armed forces said, the latest flareup which officials blame on drug cartels.

Since the start of the year Jordan has stepped up air strikes inside Syrian territory along the border against suspected farms and hideouts of drug smugglers.

Clashes have erupted with hundreds of drug dealers Jordan says have direct links to pro-Iranian militias carrying narcotics over its border from Syria, along with arms and explosives.

Iran and Hezbollah deny this, saying the accusations are part of a Western plot against them. Syria's government denies that its security and military forces work closely with Iranian-backed militias involved in drug trafficking.

Jordan's government, like its Western allies, says Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and other pro-Tehran militias who control much of southern Syria are behind the surge in drug and weapons smuggling

Jordanian officials say they were forced to take matters into their own hands following meetings with their Syrian counterparts where they expressed frustration that Damascus was not firmly acting to stem the smuggling.

Amman says it has provided names of key drug dealers and locations of manufacturing facilities and smuggling routes to Syrian authorities.

Damascus has said there was no justification for the strikes that have killed civilians and insists it was curbing the gangs operating along the border.

Supplies of a Syrian-made amphetamine known as captagon reaching Gulf Arab states via Jordan are worth billions of dollars a year and finance a host of pro-Iranian and pro-government militias, according to U.S. and European officials.

Washington and the European Union have imposed sanctions on senior officials associated with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for alleged involvement in the captagon trade. Damascus denies any role in such trafficking