Royal Jordanian Suspends Flights to Damascus, Aleppo

National carrier Royal Jordanian (RJ) said on Thursday it has suspended flights to the Syrian capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo over the unrest in the neighboring country.

"Flights to Damascus and Aleppo have been suspended because of a sharp slump in passenger traffic following developments in Syria in the past two days," state-run Petra news agency quoted RJ as saying.

RJ, which used to fly daily to these cities, "will study the possibility of resuming flights if passenger traffic returns to normal," it added.

Damascus has been rocked by clashes for five days, and on Wednesday, a blast targeting the core of the regime killed three top officials including the defense minister Daoud Rajha, President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, and crisis cell chief Hassan Turkmani.

Violence in Syria has killed more than 17,000 people since it erupted in March last year, according to a human rights watchdog.