Three US Army personnel were killed and 34 were injured as a result of a drone attack on the US base Tower 22 in northeast Jordan on the border with Syria on the night of January 28. This is the first time American soldiers have died in the Middle East since October 7.
US President Joe Biden said that the attack was carried out by pro-Iranian armed groups operating in Iraq and Syria, and promised to respond “when and how we see fit.” According to Biden, American specialists are currently collecting information about what happened.
About 3 thousand American troops are stationed in Jordan. A spokesman for the Jordanian government said after the incident that the base was located outside Jordanian territory, although it is listed everywhere as a base in Jordanian territory near the Syrian border. The Tower 22 base is located near the large American Al-Tanf base in Syria. The Jordanians claim that it was precisely this that was struck.
We are talking about a significant escalation of tensions between the United States and pro-Iranian groups, which have been attacking American targets since mid-October to force the United States to help end the war in the Gaza Strip.
Over the three months of the war, pro-Iranian groups launched 158 attacks against American targets, but for the most part they did not cause damage or were shot down by air defenses on approach. About 70 American troops were wounded in these incidents, but mostly lightly. Only one was seriously injured in December.
At least until recently, the United States made it clear that it was not interested in another war in the Middle East and avoided escalation in every possible way, and therefore did not seriously react to the provocations of Iranian proxies.
