Jordan urged to deliver food into border refugee settlement

Tribal leaders representing residents of the informal Rukban refugee settlement near the Syrian-Jordanian border have appealed to the Jordanian government to help deliver water and food into the camp.

People there have been left stranded without supplies after Amman closed down the border, following an IS-claimed attack that killed six border guards and injured 14 Tuesday.

The attack took place near Rukban on the northeast Jordanian border with Syria. The area was declared a closed military zone immediately after the attack.

The northern border is Syrians' only route into Jordan. Jordan, already home to millions of refugees, is resisting calls to allow the large number of refugees in.

The kingdom also does not recognise the settlement to be in its territory, although this has been disputed by human rights groups.

The kingdom does not recognise the settlement to be in its territory, although this has been disputed by human rights groups.

"Around 60,000 people are currently without food, water or healthcare. They have nothing," said Hala Shamlawi, spokesperson at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in remarks quoted earlier by Aljazeera.

In a statement circulated on social media sites, the tribal leaders said: "There is no where else to go for the refugees in the camp to receive their needs and food (other than Jordan".

The statement denied any link between the camp and the attack.

The local council of the town of Mahin in the eastern countryside had called on international organisations and the Syrian opposition leadership to aid nearly 60,000 refugees in the Rukban camp, many of whom hail from the Homs province.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani said that with the border sealed, aid groups will need to find alternatives to sending supplies from Jordan.