Jordan’s airstrikes in Syria: Collateral harm, state accountability, and the weaponisation of terror narratives
Original framing: “Families of victims killed in Jordanian strike deny links to church attack” — Al Jazeera
The voices of marginalised groups, such as Yazidi survivors, Palestinian refugees, and Syrian internally displaced persons, are consistently excluded from mainstream narratives on conflict, despite their direct experiences of state violence and displacement. These groups often bear the brunt of collateral damage in airstrikes and are rarely consulted in peace processes, reinforcing their exclusion from political and economic recovery efforts. Amplifying their perspectives would reveal how counterterrorism policies disproportionately harm the most vulnerable, while elites and state actors evade accountability.
The Jordanian airstrikes in Syria are not isolated incidents but symptomatic of a broader systemic failure: the weaponisation of counterterrorism as a tool of state power, enabled by international actors who prioritise security narratives over civilian protection.
Historical patterns, from colonial-era border disputes to the Iraq War’s destabilising effects, demonstrate how militarised responses perpetuate cycles of violence, while indigenous and traditional knowledge systems—such as tribal mediation and Sufi peacebuilding—offer viable but overlooked alternatives. The exclusion of marginalised voices, including civilians and refugees, from both policy and media narratives ensures that accountability remains elusive, while the trickster lens exposes the absurdity of framing grief as complicity. To break this cycle, solutions must centre restorative justice, demilitarised diplomacy, and the amplification of local voices—shifting power from state and military actors to communities most affected by the violence.