Four gunmen and a guard were killed when Syrian security forces foiled an attack this morning near the premises of the state-run television in Damascus, the official SANA news agency reported.
Two militants and two members of the security forces were wounded during the shootout, SANA said. Authorities arrested four other militants.
Syrian Television showed footage of the bodies of the four gunmen and said the group was armed with M-16 assault rifles "which are unavailable in Syria and apparently came from neighbouring countries".
Syria's relations with neighbouring Jordan have deteriorated since last month when the kingdom, a close US ally, said it had arrested members of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on charges of plotting attacks in the country. Jordan said the suspects had been trained in Syria.
Damascus is also under US pressure to seal its eastern border to stop militants from crossing into Iraq to fight US forces there.
Syria says it is doing its best but calls on Washington and Baghdad to do more too.
Damascus says the 2003 US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq gave rise to militants in the region. In the early 1980s, Syria crushed a fundamentalist revolt led by the Muslim Brotherhood, leading to the killing and imprisonment of thousands.