Jordan is concerned about the growing Iranian military presence in southern Syria, only a few kilometers from Jordanian border towns, according to local experts and various media reports. On March 16, Free Syrian Army (FSA) officials and Syrian opposition activists said that thousands in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), backed by Hezbollah fighters and Iraqi Shiite militias, were positioned along three border points with Jordan in southern Syria.
The FSA officials estimated the number of Iranian and Shiite fighters at 15,000. The report said that Jordan was coordinating with Syrian rebels in the area. These Jordanian concerns surfaced after revelations that the Damascus regime had launched a military campaign to recover areas under rebel control in Daraa and Quneitra in the south and southwest of the war-torn country.
