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Ammon News - by Omar Obeidat/ Jordan Times

IRBID –– Residents of northern villages, close to the border with Syria, on Saturday said that sounds of explosions and shelling by the Syrian regime have been less intense over the past week.

Although news agencies reported that battles have raged between regime troops and opposition forces in the border city of Daraa and surrounding villages near Jordan over the past two weeks, Jordanians living across the border say sounds of shelling, particularly at night, seem to have abated over the last week.

“We still hear sounds of explosions at night, but not as frequent and as powerful as before,” said Ibrahim Hamadneh, whose village of Aqraba in Irbid is around 80km north of Amman.

According to Khaled Safadi, when the shelling was intense, residents of Hartha village sometimes thought that it was inside Jordan because the sounds were “very loud”.

“The powerful explosions used to shake our houses,” Safadi said, noting that over the past few days, shelling has been less frequent and not as loud as it used to be.

Residents of the northern villages voiced hope that fighting in Syria, between regime forces and an armed opposition, would come to an end soon, or at least come to a halt during the holy month of Ramadan.

“God willing, the Syrian people will be victorious very soon and the Assad regime will fall,” said Salem Obeidat, adding that fighting should at least stop during Ramadan as a sign of respect for Islam.

The vast majority of residents of northern towns sympathise with the Syrian people and the opposition against the regime, and many host Syrian families who fled violence.