Deadly mistake in drone disaster
Human error suspected
US forces may have mistaken an enemy drone for an American one and let it pass unchallenged into a desert base in Jordan where it killed three US troops and wounded dozens more while they were in their sleeping quarters.
As the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, a US drone was also returning to the base known as Tower 22, so no attempt was made to shoot it down, according to a preliminary report cited by two officials, according to The Associated Press.
The Pentagon said more than 40 troops were wounded in the attack, and eight were medically evacuated.
The casualties – the first US military deaths in an attack in the region since the IsraelHamas war began – were identified as Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46, and Specialists Kennedy Sanders, 24, and Breonna Moffett, 23, who were all army reservists.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said US Central Command was still assessing the matter and whether “human error” allowed the enemy drone to pass.
The White House, meanwhile vowed a “very consequential response” to the attack as President Joe Biden blaming Iran-backed militants.
“We are not looking for a war with Iran,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, but stressed the strike “was escalatory, make no mistake about it, and it requires a response”.
His remarks came shortly after Mr Biden met with his national security team, including Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Iran said it had nothing to do with the attack and denied US accusations it supported militant groups behind the Sunday strike on the remote frontier base in Jordan’s northeast, near the borders with Iraq and Syria.
American and allied forces were targeted in the region again on Monday, this time by rockets in Syria, though no injuries were reported, a US defence official said.
US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 165 times since mid-October – 66 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and one in Jordan – with “a mix of one-way attack drones, rockets, mortars, and close-range ballistic missiles,” the official said.
Britain has also blamed “Iran-aligned” militants for the Jordan attack, accusations that Iran’s foreign ministry has rejected as “baseless”.
There has so far been no claim of responsibility, although the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed the same day to have launched three drone attacks at bases in Syria, including near the Jordanian border.
The group has links to Iran and has claimed dozens of attacks on Western forces.