2024-01-28T16:33:31+00:00
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/ Three American soldiers were killed and at least two dozen service members were wounded in an overnight drone attack on a small American outpost in Jordan, US officials told CNN, marking the first time American troops have been killed by hostile fire in the Middle East since the start of the Gaza war.
The American network reported that the killing of three Americans in Tower 22 in Jordan near the border with Syria constitutes a major escalation of the already dangerous situation in the Middle East.
Three service members were killed and 25 others wounded in a one-way drone attack “targeting a base in northeastern Jordan,” US Central Command confirmed in a statement on Sunday.
As of Friday, there had been more than 158 attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, though officials have described the steady barrage of drones, rockets and missiles as unsuccessful because they often did not cause serious casualties or damage to infrastructure.
It is not clear why air defenses failed to intercept the drone, which appears to be the first known attack on Tower 22 since the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces began on Oct. 17. U.S. forces are on the scene as part of an advise-and-assist mission. Mission with Jordan
U.S. officials have repeatedly said they do not want to see rising tensions in the Middle East escalate into a regional war. Asked last week whether the Pentagon assessed that Iranian proxies were stepping up attacks on U.S. forces, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said: “Not necessarily, no.”
In a pre-recorded interview with ABC News that aired Sunday morning, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. CQ Brown said part of the U.S. job is to “make sure that we don’t have a conflict like we did in the Middle East.”
“The goal is to deter them and we do not want to go down a path of greater escalation that leads to a much broader conflict within the region,” he added.