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Ammon News - By Taylor Luck/ Jordan Times

AMMAN — Syrian government forces have claimed to have killed 38 Jordanian nationals fighting alongside rebel forces in the month of July amid a reported rising influx of Jordanian jihadists from the Syrian-Turkish border.

In a report issued late Tuesday, the Syrian state news agency (SANA) claimed that regime forces killed two Jordanian nationals fighting alongside Islamist militants on the outskirts of Damascus on Tuesday — raising to 38 the total number of Jordanians allegedly killed while fighting alongside rebel forces in July alone.

According to Mousa Abdullat, legal representative and defence attorney for the Jordanian jihadist movement, July’s deaths raise to 70 the total number of Jordanian fighters allegedly killed in Syria since the onset of the crisis in March 2011.

Nearly one-third of Jordanians allegedly killed in July hailed from the city of Ruseifa, northeast of Amman, followed by Salt, Amman and the southern city of Maan.

Jordanian Salafist leaders refused to confirm the number, adding only that a rising number of Jordanian nationals are taking up arms to wage jihad — or holy war — against Bashar Assad’s regime.

“Over the past two months, we have seen hundreds of Jordanians joining the struggle to defend their Muslim brothers and sisters in Syria,” said Mohammed Shalabi, or Abu Sayyaf, head of the Jordanian Jihadist Salafist movement.

According to Abu Sayyaf, over 200 Jordanians have crossed into Syria via its northern borders with Turkey this month to join rebel forces, with over 800 Jordanians currently fighting alongside Islamist militants across the country.

The vast majority — some 80 per cent of Jordanians — have joined ranks with Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat Al Nusra jihadist coalition, Islamist sources say, with the remainder serving the Free Syrian Army and smaller Salafist groups.

Valued for their previous military experience, dozens of Jordanians have risen to the leadership ranks of Jabhat Al Nusra, with Zarqa native Mustafa Abdul Latif Al Saleh, or Abu Anas Al Sahaba, currently serving as emir — or field commander — of the coalition’s forces in Syria.

Meanwhile, Jordanian security forces are continuing their ongoing crackdown on the influx of fighters moving across over the Jordanian-Syrian border, with officials claiming to have arrested 40 Jordanian and foreign “jihadists” over the past two months.