The President of the United States announced this Sunday, January 28, that three American soldiers were killed “last night” and many others injured – at least 34 are under medical supervision for possible head trauma, according to a US official – in a drone attack on US armed forces stationed in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border. Some injured people are being evacuated from the Jordanian base for medical reasons, two American officials told Reuters. The Pentagon has not yet given details on the type of injuries suffered, but brain damage is common after a large explosion.
Joe Biden claimed that it was an attack perpetrated by “radical pro-Iran fighters acting in Syria and Iraq.” He also threatened those responsible with reprisals. This is the first time that American soldiers have been killed in the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
For his part, the spokesperson for the Jordanian government assures that the attack did not take place on its soil but in Syria, against the American base of Al-Tanf. According to state media, it occurred on the border between the two countries. Amman said no Jordanian border guards were injured in the attack, state media also reported.
After the assault was announced, Hamas spokesman Sami Abou Zahri said the deaths of the three soldiers “is a message to the American administration”: “the continuation of American-Zionist aggression in Gaza risks leading to a regional explosion” due to anger “from the whole” of the Muslim world.
Flammable background
Between the war in Gaza, the multiple strikes between Iran and its allies in the region on the one hand (Hamas, Hezbollah, etc.), and Israel, the United States and their partners on the other, these American deaths occur in an flammable context. Since mid-October, more than 150 drone strikes or rocket attacks have targeted American and coalition soldiers in Iraq and Syria. These strikes, which have so far not killed an American soldier, are generally claimed by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, a nebula of fighters from pro-Iran armed groups.
Washington responded with targeted strikes in Iraq, with Iran and the United States repeating that they did not want a regional explosion. Further south, since the beginning of January, Washington has repeatedly bombed positions of the Houthis in Yemen, these pro-Iran rebels who target international maritime traffic in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The United States even asked China this week to intercede with Tehran in favor of stopping these strikes, which have seriously disrupted world trade.
At the same time, Israel, an ally of the United States, has intensified its strikes against the Syrian regime and pro-Iranian groups in the neighboring country. Israel also faces, on its northern border, regular exchanges of fire with the Lebanese Hezbollah, very close to Iran.
Update : addition at 6:05 p.m. of the number of injured; at 6:20 p.m. Jordanian comments affirming that the attack took place in Syria; at 7 p.m. for more context.