by Taylor Luck, Jordan Times

AMMAN — Seven Jordanian nationals were reportedly killed while fighting alongside Islamic comrades in Syria, sources say, amid a reported influx of over 200 Jordanian jihadists into the northern neighbour.

A Free Syrian Army fighter points his weapon as he takes up a position inside a room in Aleppo’s Salaheddine neighbourhood on Friday (Reuters photo)

The Jordanian jihadist movement confirmed that Jordanians Abdullah Abu Zuhair Al Maani, Khaldoun Al Masri and Mahmoud Hamad were among the seven killed over the weekend while fighting alongside Jabhat Al Nusra fighters in southern Syria.

“The seven men entered Syria from Turkey last month and fell martyrs in Daraa and Damascus,” said Mousa Abdullat, defence attorney and legal representative for the hardline Jordanian Salafist movement.

The men’s deaths raises to 45 the total number of Jordanians reportedly killed while fighting alongside Islamic groups in Syria.

The incident comes amid a recent reported influx of hundreds of foreign Islamist fighters from Turkey into Syria that has seen over 200 Jordanian jihadists enter the country.

According to Mohammad Shalabi, also known as Abu Sayyaf, head of the Jordanian jihadist Salafist movement, some 200 Jordanians have joined Islamist fighters in Syria over the past month, raising the total number of Jordanian jihadists fighting in Syria to over 700.

“We are seeing more and more true believers of all ages answer the call to defend their brothers and sisters against massacres perpetrated by the Shiites in Syria,” Abu Sayyaf said, in reference to the Alawites, a splinter of the Shiite sect and their Hizbollah supporters.

According to Islamist sources, the bulk of Jordanian fighters have joined Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat Al Nusra, where dozens have risen to senior leadership positions due to their previous military experience in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Late last year, the jihadist umbrella group named Jordanian Latif Al Saleh, also known as Abu Anas Al Sahaba, as emir, or field commander of Al Nusra forces.

The influx of foreign fighters comes amid ongoing calls by conservative Sunni clerics across the region for jihad, or holy war in Syria to repel the alleged growing number of Shiite fighters entering from Lebanon and Iraq supporting the regime.

In light of the growing influx of foreign jihadist fighters, Jordanian authorities have imposed a security crackdown along the 370-kilometre-long Jordanian-Syrian border, arresting over 50 alleged jihadists over the past two months alone.