Fathers of slain U.S. soldiers attend trial in Jordan

AMMAN, Jordan — Four more witnesses testified before a Jordanian military court Sunday morning in the fourth hearing of a Jordanian soldier charged with murder in the shooting of three U.S. military trainers.

The U.S. Army Green Berets were killed when their convoy came under fire at the gate of an air base in southern Jordan in November.

Jordan, a close U.S. military ally, initially said the Americans triggered the shooting by disobeying orders of Jordanian troops. Jordan later withdrew this claim and King Abdullah II exonerated the soldiers from any wrongdoing in a letter to the parents shown to The Associated Press.

Brian McEnroe and James Moriarty, fathers of two of the three slain soldiers, travelled to Amman to attend the hearing in a state security court with the alleged killer locked in a cage near the judge.

“It was a Father’s Day from Hell,” said Moriarty, a 70-year old trial lawyer from Houston.

The families are outraged over Jordan’s initial claim that the three soldiers themselves triggered the November shooting. Jordan retracted the claim but maintains the Jordanian soldiers acted properly under “the rules of engagement.”

“It seems as though the Jordanian government just wanted to bury this,” McEnroe said. “For whatever reason they’ve dishonoured our boys and they’ve done it for seven months and I want to see their honour restored. It’s all they have left.”

The four witnesses were Jordanian soldiers present during the shooting who claimed the defendant, First Sgt. Marik al-Tuwayha, was a “good man” and “acting normally” the day of the shooting.

According to their testimonies, they first heard a “light burst” of gunfire coming from outside the facility while inside a rapid response vehicle at 11:45 a.m. The witnesses said the gunfire sounded like shots from the pistols carried by the Green Berets, and not the standard-issued M-16 assault rifles carried by the Jordanians.

The witnesses claimed the gunfire intensified after five minutes, leading the Jordanians to assume the base was under attack. The Jordanians then ordered the driver of the vehicle to approach the gate and follow the rules of engagement, which allow soldiers to fire back “without orders.”