(Reuters) - Six Jordanian border guards were killed by a car bomb in a remote area of the frontier with Syria on Tuesday during an attack launched from Syrian territory, security officials said.
The explosives-laden vehicle blew up a few hundred meters from a camp for Syrian refugees in a desolate eastern area of Jordan where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan meet, a Jordanian army statement said.
The army said a number of other vehicles used in the attack were destroyed and that 14 other people were wounded in the attack at around 5.30 a.m.
It was the first attack of its kind targeting Jordan from Syria since Syria's descent into conflict in 2011.
It followed an attack on June 6 on a security office near the Jordanian capital Amman in which five people, including three Jordanian intelligence officers, were killed.
The incidents have jolted the U.S.-backed Arab kingdom, which has been relatively unscathed by the instability that has swept the Arab world since 2011, including the expansion of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Jordan is a staunch ally of the United States and is taking part in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State in Syria, where the jihadist group still controls large areas of territory including much of the east.
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