Jordan has reacted swiftly to reports that the border crossing point of Treibel, on the Iraqi side, had fallen into rebel hands, including possibly fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), by beefing up military presence on the eastern front and heightening the state of alert. The Jordanian armed forces confirmed June 24 that it has reinforced its units along the 180-kilometer (112-mile) border with Iraq. It said the action was taken after the Iraqi army withdrew from the border crossing, and that the army and security personnel were ready to deal with any contingency.

But a spokesman for al-Anbar governorate’s Sunni tribes told Al-Maqar website that the border point was under the control of tribal rebels who are working jointly with Iraqi border guards. He denied the existence of ISIS at Treibel, while other reports said members of the Salafist jihadist group took over a number of Iraqi towns in Anbar, including al-Rutba, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Jordan-Iraq border.

News of ISIS moving closer to the Jordanian borders have raised tension in Jordan prompting the government’s spokesman, Mohammad al-Momani, to announce that Jordan’s armed forces were ready to deal with any development along the kingdom’s borders, and that Jordan had deterrence power to repulse any potential attack.

The quick takeover by ISIS and Sunni rebels of at least three Iraqi governorates in the past two weeks, including the city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has created unease in Jordan for a number of reasons. ISIS has in the past threatened the regime and video clips on YouTube by Jordanian members of the organization, vowing to march on the kingdom and burning their passports, have generated concern. No one really knows how many Jordanians have joined this radical Islamist group, but there are estimates that at least 2,000 jihadists have joined Jabhat al-Nusra, which is associated with al-Qaeda, and ISIS to fight in Syria.