A Jordanian court on Wednesday (March 15th) opened the trial of five Syrians charged with planning a deadly attack claimed by the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) near the Syrian border last year, AFP reported.
"The five accused, all Syrian and aged 20 to 26, appeared in court and pleaded not guilty," a judicial source said.
The suicide bombing on June 21st, 2016 killed seven soldiers in a no-man's-land near the Rukban crossing with Syria.
Soon after the attack, the army declared Jordan's desert regions that stretch north-east to Syria and east to Iraq "closed military zones", stranding thousands of Syrian refugees in the area.
The charge sheet said the five suspects all lived in the Rukban camp, which is home to around 60,000 Syrian refugees.
One of them, an alleged ISIL member, arrived in the camp in February last year and recruited the others to plan the attack, it said.
