Tag: jordan

Night Eleven Over Iran: 4th Us Soldier Dead, Ceasefire Collapses As Tehran Hits Jordan, Bahrain And Kuwait Bases

For the eleventh consecutive night, U.S. Central Command launched strikes on Iran. The Pentagon confirmed a fourth American service member killed in Iranian attacks in recent days, according to CBS News, with President Trump scheduled to receive the remains at Dover Air Force Base Wednesday morning in a dignified transfer.

CENTCOM said Tuesday night’s strikes, completed at approximately 8:15 p.m. ET, targeted aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities, and operations centers across Iran — all aimed at degrading Tehran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Per CENTCOM’s own statement, Iran has now attacked more than 30 commercial vessels since the conflict escalated, threatening hundreds of mariners and disrupting one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply that once transited the strait.

Iran escalated in parallel. The Iranian military claimed in statements carried by state media early Wednesday that it had targeted U.S. military facilities in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan — the same Al-Azraq base in Jordan where three American soldiers were killed earlier this week. Jordan’s military said five Iranian drones and three missiles were all intercepted. Bahrain sounded missile alert sirens as Iranian projectiles targeted the island nation, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. The New York Times confirmed the claims were reflected in U.S. military tracking.

Against this backdrop, diplomacy quietly died in Islamabad. Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan — a key mediator — in an attempt to resuscitate the collapsed 10-day ceasefire proposal, per Republic World. But Trump, speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, shut the door on talks: the U.S. had “no interest in meeting,” he said, and signaled that future strikes could target areas near Iran’s uranium enrichment sites.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Manila, warned that Iran’s demand to collect tolls in the Strait of Hormuz would set a precedent threatening freedom of navigation across the globe — explicitly mentioning the South China Sea. “If we create a precedent where a nation state can control an international waterway, charge a toll, and blow up ships if you don’t pay — that will repeat itself in other parts of the world,” Rubio said. Energy markets took note: Brent crude climbed above $91 a barrel Tuesday, with U.S. pump prices averaging $4 a gallon.

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Pentagon concealed dozens of casualties from Iranian strikes in Jordan: Report

The Pentagon did not disclose dozens of injuries to US service personnel resulting from a barrage of Iranian ballistic missile strikes on US bases in Jordan last week, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 20 July.

CBS News reported on Friday that two US soldiers and one service member were missing following Iranian strikes on the Muwaffaq Salti Base in Jordan. 

Iran carried out three additional strikes against US forces in Jordan the same week.

“Those attacks injured dozens of US service members and damaged several helicopters,” NYT wrote, citing US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted,” the paper added.

Throughout the war launched by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Islamic Republic in February, the Pentagon has stated that “operational security” takes precedence over notifying the US public about developments in the war, including casualties to soldiers.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) is not required to release information about injured service members, a US military official said in response to the Iranian attacks last week.

Another US official said that doing so would help Iran more accurately target US soldiers in the region with its ballistic missiles and drones.

CENTCOM has also stopped announcing how many sites in Iran it hits each day for the same reason. The Pentagon has not given a major briefing on the war since May, providing little information about the US strategy.

US officials have also refused to comment on reports that the military is running low on missile interceptors, or how Iran continues to launch ballistic missiles after Trump declared Iran’s missile capabilities had been destroyed earlier in the war.

On 1 April, The Intercept reported that Washington was engaged in a “casualty cover-up,” saying that nearly 750 US soldiers had been injured or killed since October 2023 – a number far higher than US officials had admitted.

A total of 17 US service members have been killed and 400 injured in the war on Iran, according to the Pentagon’s official numbers. However, the number of injured has not been updated in recent weeks.

The two killed in Jordan were identified as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, from Texas.

In response to the soldiers’ deaths, President Trump said the troops died “in service of our country,” while claiming that the goal of the war is “never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Elsewhere, Trump has stated that the US is fighting the war for its Gulf allies. Other reports indicate Trump launched the war under pressure from Israel.

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Two US Service Members Killed in Action in Jordan, One Missing in Action After Iranian Drone Attack

Two US service members were killed in action in Jordan this week.

One service member is still missing.

Full statement from CENTCOM:

On July 17, two U.S. service members in Jordan were killed in action as U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and partner forces defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. Additionally, one service member is currently missing in action.

Four American service members were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals. They have since been discharged. Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty.

Out of respect for the families, CENTCOM will withhold additional information, including the identities of the fallen warriors, until 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified.

CBS News reported on Friday that several US service members were injured this week in Iranian attacks on two Jordanian bases.

US strikes have continued against Iranian missile and drone sites in and around the Strait of Hormuz for several consecutive days.

On Thursday, the US launched its sixth night in a row of strikes against Iran as Tehran struck Jordan and Kuwait.

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EXPOSED: Rep. Tim Burchett BLASTS Congress for Sneaking Through $90.1 BILLION in DIRTY SPENDING — $1.425B to Egypt and “Building Jordan a Wall While They Fire Missiles at Others”

Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett stormed off the House floor in utter disgust after Congress rammed through a massive $90.1 billion spending bill loaded with foreign giveaways and anti-American pork.

Burchett first pointed to an amendment offered by Chip Roy to cut the D.C. Court of Appeals budget by 20% and strip salary funding for the staffs of Judges Boasberg and Boardman.

Next up was an amendment from Eli Crane to defund the National Endowment for Democracy, an NGO long criticized by conservatives for meddling abroad and fueling censorship and regime-change operations.

Burchett also laid out another outrageous line item buried in the bill: an estimated $6.15 billion total for the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program across multiple countries.

FMF funding includes:

  • $1.3B for Egypt
  • $3.3B for Israel
  • $425M + $50M for Jordan
  • Additional FMF allocations to other countries

Tim Burchett wrote on X, “I am so disgusted. This is not what you sent us here for. Funding liberal causes and foreign militaries and contraception. $90 Billion of your money.”

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RFK Jr. Calls Out King Abdullah: ‘They’ve Cut Us Off’

It’s a rare moment today in American politics that Donald Trump’s West Wing, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi are on the same side of an issue. And it’s rarer still that each of these parties is irritated at the same person.

Yet as Jordan’s King Abdullah II returns to Washington on Monday, top Trump aides, Kennedy, and Pelosi are venting their frustration with one of the Middle East’s longest-serving monarchs.

At issue: the commitment Abdullah made in February sitting by Trump’s side in the Oval Office to accept 2,000 children from Gaza with cancer and other grave illnesses.

Abdullah, say multiple high-ranking officials in both parties, is slow-walking his pledge, and Jordan has only accepted a fraction of sick children because of fears Israel will not let them and their families return to Gaza after treatment.

“They took 44, and then they’ve cut us off,” Kennedy told me over the weekend.

Alluding to Abdullah, an adviser and ally to American presidents for over a quarter-century, Kennedy said: “I would encourage him to put the welfare of these children first and put the politics aside.”

The health secretary pointedly recalled that the king’s “statements to President Trump were really unconditional.” Kennedy repeatedly emphasized the life-and-death urgency of the patients. “These kids are very, very fragile,” he said.

A top West Wing official involved in the discussions was even more to the point, calling Jordan’s reluctance to fully fulfill their pledge “a sad commentary” and that “the war makes things difficult for obvious reasons.”

Pelosi, who has a longstanding friendship with Abdullah, took matters into her own hands last week and had a blunt, private conversation with Jordan’s ambassador to the U.S., Dina Kawar. Kawar told Pelosi that Abdullah’s pledge was contingent on Israel allowing those children who’ve finished treatment to return to Gaza and suggested the former speaker talk to the king, I’m told by a person familiar with the conversation.

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US outpost not given proper air defenses before deadly attack

For three years the United States has been giving Ukraine everything it needs by way of offensive and defensive weapons in its war with Russia. Critically, this has included air defense systems, much of it taken from our own national stockpiles.

Now it turns out that our own troops may have been denied access to anti-drone air defense systems and more sophisticated radar detection months before a lethal attack on a small American outpost in Jordan on Jan. 18, 2024. The drone assault, reportedly launched by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed militia group, resulted in the deaths of three American Army soldiers.

According to the Washington Post, which obtained access to the massive Army internal investigation of the incident through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the small outpost was ill-prepared for the attack on a number of levels. But this is key:

The investigation’s findings appear to have some contradictions. For instance, investigators faulted Tower 22’s leaders for failing to “visualize risk” and not appreciating the likelihood of an attack.

Yet commanders above them also failed to envision the base’s vulnerability. Four months before the attack, Army Central, which oversees operations throughout the Middle East, denied a request for an air defense system capable of shooting down drones because, investigators found, only one such system was available and troops in the United States needed it to prepare for deployments. A request for a radar system that could better detect drones also was denied, the report said.

The only counter-drone defenses at Tower 22 were electronic warfare systems designed to disable the aircraft or disrupt their path to a target, according to the investigation and previous reporting by The Post.

A spokesperson for Army Central did not respond to repeated requests for additional information, including regarding who at Army Central denied Tower 22’s appeal for an air defense system.

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Biden Deploys Record Number of Troops to Jordan in Quiet Buildup

As the war in Gaza rages, the Biden administration has deployed a record number of U.S. troops to Jordan, a new report to Congress reveals. The troop buildup has not been previously reported.

There are now a record 3,813 American troops in Jordan, according to the White House’s war powers report to Congress released on June 7. That’s a 625 troop increase over December, with the number of soldiers and airmen exceeding the number at any time since the second Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq, a review of past war powers reports reveals.

The Biden administration has sought to keep quiet its close military ties to Jordan, with the White House national security council instructing State Department communications officials to avoid mentioning its military coordination with the country in particular, according to internal memos I’ve reviewed. When Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel in April, Jordan was a key partner in shooting them down, and Jordan even allowed Israeli planes to operate in Jordanian airspace. Jordan as a partner of Israel is a particularly sensitive issue, hence the desire on the part of Washington to keep talk of Jordan to a minimum.

The President’s war powers report to Congress is intended to keep the American public informed about situations in which U.S. military forces might find themselves in combat.  In the case of Jordan, this isn’t a hypothetical: in January, an Iran-backed militia group killed three American Army soldiers stationed at a secret U.S. military base in Jordan, called Tower-22. Since October 7, Iran-backed groups have launched over 170 attacks on U.S. military assets in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. The Biden administration has repeatedly tried to downplay these attacks, insisting that the Israel-Hamas war has not spread to the rest of the region. The war powers report makes no mention of Iran-backed groups, saying only that U.S. troops are there to “support Defeat-ISIS operations, to enhance Jordan’s security, and to promote regional stability.”

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Pentagon Admits It Has No Evidence Iran Was Behind Drone Attack That Killed 3 US Troops in Jordan

The Pentagon on Monday said Iran “bears responsibility” for the drone attack in northeastern Jordan that killed three US troops but admitted it has no evidence that Iran was directly involved.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the responsibility fell on Iran due to its support for Iraqi Shia militias the US believes carried out the attack.

“In terms of attribution for the attack, we know this is an [Iran]-backed militia. It has the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah, but [we’re] not making a final assessment,” Singh said at a press conference. “Iran continues to arm and equip these groups to launch these attacks, and we will certainly hold them responsible.”

When asked if the US knew Iran and Iranian leaders were “actually behind this attack, as in planned, coordinated, or directed it,” Singh admitted the US had nothing to show that.

“We know that Iran certainly plays a role with these groups, they arm and equip and fund these groups. I don’t have more to share on — terms of an intelligence assessment on if leaders in Iran were directing this attack,” she said.

Singh was again asked about the claim that Iran was behind the attack and said the US just knows that “Iran funds these groups” and had nothing more to add. Later in the press conference, she said Iran “bears responsibility” for the killing of three American soldiers.

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Preliminary report suggests enemy drone that killed US troops in Jordan was mistaken for a US drone

An enemy drone that killed three American troops and wounded dozens of others in Jordan may have been confused with an American drone returning to the U.S. installation, two U.S. officials said Monday.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity, said preliminary accounts suggest the enemy drone that struck the installation known as Tower 22 may have been mistaken for an American drone that was in the air at the same time.

The officials said that as the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, a U.S. drone was returning to the base. As a result, there was no effort to shoot down the enemy drone.

The preliminary conclusion was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

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The Killing of 3 American Troops Was an Avoidable Tragedy

American blood has been drawn in a Middle Eastern war for the first time in a while. Iraqi guerrillas allied with Iran killed three U.S. troops and wounded dozens more along the Jordanian-Syrian border on Sunday, using an explosive drone. President Joe Biden has promised to “all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing.” Members of Congress have called for a harsh response, with some Republicans demanding a full-on war against Iran.

The government of Jordan, clearly not keen on getting dragged into the conflict, has denied that the attack happened on its side of the border. Iran shrugged off responsibility for the bombing, insisting that the issue is entirely between the United States and “resistance groups in Iraq and Syria.” The Iraqi fighters may have indeed been acting on their own accord. Iraqi commander Qais al-Khazali had complained about U.S. airstrikes on Iraq in a speech last November: “You are cautious when it comes to Iranian blood, but you pay no regard to Iraqi blood. Therefore, Iraqis should teach you a lesson for what you have done.”

The immediate cause of the violence is the war in Gaza, which prompted Iraqi militias to break a truce they had with the U.S. military. But this particular attack was a long time coming. The target was Tower 22, an extension of al-Tanf, a base that the U.S. military maintains in Syria for murky and confusing purposes. Over the past few years, Israeli aircraft have used al-Tanf’s airspace to strike Iran’s forces, and Iranian forces have struck back at the base. It was only a matter of time before Americans were dragged into the proxy war, with tragic results.

U.S. Special Forces had first set up shop in al-Tanf during the war against the Islamic State. Their plan was to support the Revolutionary Commando Army, a friendly Syrian rebel group. That project failed embarrassingly. The Revolutionary Commando Army suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Islamic State in 2016, and one of its leaders ran off with American-made guns after he was accused of drug trafficking in 2020. Kurdish-led forces elsewhere in Syria became a much more reliable partner for the U.S. military.

Meanwhile, Russia—which is allied with the Iranian and Syrian governments—agreed to enforce a 55 kilometer “deconfliction zone” around al-Tanf. The zone also included Rukban, an unofficial refugee camp built by Syrians fleeing government persecution. (The Syrian government reportedly tortured two former Rukban residents to death in October 2022.) No country wanted to take responsibility for the camp, and it took almost a decade for the U.S. military to begin providing food aid to Rukban.

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