More than 1,000 Syrians flooded into Jordan on Wednesday, according to humanitarian and security sources, amid a spike in violence and a tightened clampdown on the Jordanian-Syrian border, dpa reported.
The refugees, from the cities of Homs and Hama, arrived illegally in Jordan within a 12-hour period, according to the Kitab Al Sunna Society, a local charitable organization, in an operation Syrian activists claim was facilitated by the Free Syrian Army and the Jordanian military.
According to a Jordanian security source who confirmed the exodus, the refugees were transferred to a fortified compound in the border city of Ramtha, some 90 kilometres north of Amman, to undergo security background checks.
Wednesday marked the single largest influx of Syrians to Jordan, which has provided refuge to more than 100,000 refugees to date.