Jordanian soldiers killed and injured as car bomb explodes at defences on Syrian border

Six Jordanian troops have been killed and 14 injured after a car bomb exploded near the country's frontier with war-torn Syria, the Jordanian army has revealed.

Sources said the attack took place at an earthen barrier that runs along the Jordanian side of the border. In a statement the military said a "booby-trapped car attacked the [earthen barrier], killing and wounding a number of border guards".

Several other vehicles in the attack were destroyed, but immediate details of how they were involved were not forthcoming, the Associated Press reported.

According to Reuters the explosion took place a few hundred meters from Rakban refugee camp, where Jordan borders Iraq and Syria. More than 60,000 Syrian refugees are stranded at two locations along the earthen defence barrier, awaiting entry to Jordan.

While no individual group has claimed responsibility for the attack, Jordanian authorities blamed the Islamic State for an attack on the office of the national intelligence agency on 7 June.