At Syria border, Jordanians dash over for cheap shopping

NASSIB, Syria: Near the recently reopened border with Jordan, former Syrian rebel fighter Bahaa al-Masri sells date-filled pastries and sesame biscuits to Jordanians flocking across the frontier to snap up bargains. Syrian regime forces retook control of the Nassib border crossing from rebels in July, and last month reopened it after a three-year closure.

Just several hundred metres from the frontier, 26-year-old Masri counts the boxes of biscuits he still has left in a green plastic crate strapped to the back of his motorbike.

"For two weeks I have been bringing sweets from Damascus and selling them to Jordanians who come to buy them here because they’re cheaper," says the ex-combatant, wearing a black jacket and woollen hat.

"I sell 27 to 30 boxes a day." Masri hawks the pastries every day in a rest area on the edge of Syria’s southern province of Daraa for three Jordanian dinars each.

"Thank God, when the border opened there was work again here, after I spent around six years without a job," Masri tells AFP. Because money was tight, he joined a rebel group that paid him a monthly wage to fight.

"I picked up arms so we could eat and live," he says, crates of green apples and oranges stacked behind him. Daraa was once seen as the cradle of Syria’s seven-year uprising, but in July regime forces took back control through a military push and deals that saw rebels surrender. Under those agreements, brokered by regime ally Russia, many fighters chose to leave with their families to remaining opposition areas in northern Syria.

But Masri opted to stay and settled his status officially with the returning government authorities, a move likely to see him called up for military service. Until the summons comes from the army, he is happy taking advantage of the money-making opportunities on offer now the border is open.

Also looking to cash in are Jordanian drivers, jokingly dubbed "sailors", who ferry goods from Syria across the frontier for a small commission. A whole economy has sprung up again since the border begun working. At the crossing itself cars sit side by side in several long queues waiting to cross over into Syria.

Large trucks, some refrigerated, also wait their turn. Before the war, "we used to come over to Syria every day -- sometimes just to have breakfast", says Mohammed Sayes, a 25-year-old from Jordan’s adjacent border town of Ramtha.