Taylor Luck, The Jordan Times

AMMAN — Over 200 Jordanian nationals have allegedly been killed while fighting alongside jihadist groups in Syria, hardline Islamists said on Monday, amid a reported growing influx of Jordanian fighters into Syria.

According to the Jordanian Jihadi Salafist movement, the reported killing of three Jordanian fighters on the outskirts of Damascus on Saturday pushed to 210 the total number of Jordanians allegedly killed while fighting against the Syrian regime since the outbreak of the conflict in March 2011.

Previous news reports estimated the total number of Jordanians killed while fighting alongside Islamist militants at 57.

“We saw more martyrs last month,” said a senior leader of the Jordanian jihadist movement who preferred to remain unnamed due to security concerns.

According to the extremist movement, the largest number of Jordanian fighters — some 75 — were killed in and around the Damascus countryside, followed by 65 in Aleppo and 50 in Daraa.

Syrian Islamists put the number of Jordanians who have so far joined the ranks of Islamist militias in Syria at 2,200.

Border authorities have frequently reported attempts to cross the border into the northern neighbour, where the civil war is increasingly taking a sectarian turn, pitting Sunni Islamists against Alawites and Shiites coming from Lebanon and Iraq.

The vast majority of Jordanian fighters have joined the ranks of Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a leader from the group claimed, with the remainder fighting alongside the more moderate Jabhat Al Nusra jihadist coalition and other smaller Islamist groups.

“Many Jordanians have answered the call for jihad and are fighting and patrolling liberated areas in southern Syria,” Mohammad Al Libi, ISIS commander and spokesman, told The Jordan Times recently.

Previously, Al Nusra coalition ranked as the largest recruiter of Jordanian fighters, boasting over 1,200 nationals among its ranks.