Rocket fired from Syria kills one in Jordan: govt source

A rocket fired from Syria hit a city in northern Jordan Thursday, killing one person and wounding four, an official, Bader al-Qadi, told Al Arabiya News.

Jordanian citizen Abdul Munem al-Hourani was killed and four others were injured after “a stray mortar shell” from Syria's Daraa hit a house in the northern city of Ramtha.

According to Ramtha’s District Governor al-Qadi, al- Hourani, 23, died in hospital after the shell hit his family home.

Hourani was an engineering student at the Jordan University of Science and Technology.

The health conditions of the injured are stable, al-Qadi told Al Arabiya News, adding that the house is in the center of the main market of Ramtha.

The Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted unnamed officials as confirming that Ramtha, only some three kilometers north of Daraa, was the target of several mortar shells from Syria on Thursday.

The officials added that authorities are now working on identifying the source of the attack to take the "suitable method" of retaliation.

Residents of Jordan's border town of Ramtha have been complaining about "sleepless nights" over the past few days due to the nearby intensified clashes between the Syrian army and the armed opposition on Syria’s Daraa.

The Free Syrian Army - aided by Jabhat al-Nusra and other Islamist opposition groups - and President Bashar Assad’s forces have been reported to be engaged in fierce battles in the southern province of Daraa, the birthplace of Syria’s 2011 uprising.

Around 70 percent of Daraa province is under the control of rebel groups, who have made several advances in the region in recent weeks.