[News] “Logistics” Outpost in Jordan Where 3 U.S. Troops Died Is Secretly a Drone Base

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theintercept.com
<https://theintercept.com/2024/02/09/us-base-jordan-tower-22-troops-iran-backed-militias/>
“Logistics” Outpost in Jordan Where 3 U.S. Troops Died Is Secretly a Drone
Base
Ken Klippenstein
February 9, 2024
------------------------------

*Tower 22*, the U.S. base in Jordan where three American service members
were killed last month, is not simply a “logistics support base,” as the
Pentagon has describedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/3658552/update-us-casualties-in-northeast-jordan-near-syrian-border/>
it.

What the Pentagon hasn’t mentioned is that Tower 22 is also a drone base
conducting long-range reconnaissance on militants in neighboring Syria and
Iraq for airstrikes, according to two U.S. military sources. The base also
serves as a staging facility for special operations forces and a medevac
helicopter home base.

And while the Pentagon says Tower 22’s mission was to combat the Islamic
State, or ISIS, since Hamas’s assault on Israel in October, its focus has
turned to Iran-backed militia groups.

“To call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit.”

“To call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit,” an Air
Force airman, whose unit was recently stationed at the base, told The
Intercept. Logistics was a small part of the mission, amounting to weekly
food and fuel deliveries to the nearby Al-Tanf base.

“The main purpose of Tower 22 is to operate drones to spy on insurgents in
Iraq and Syria, for targeting purposes,” the airman said. “The main
objective I witnessed was taking out targets.”

Tower 22 provided targeting intelligence to Air Force assets stationed at
other bases in Jordan, such as Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, to use in strikes,
the airman said
<https://theintercept.com/2023/11/16/pentagon-jordan-military-air-base/>.

An early news story on the drone attackOpens in a new tab
<https://apnews.com/article/jordan-drone-attack-attack-confusion-f175962e058b9b6f668303faf248d8e6>
that killed the U.S. service members cited unnamed officials discussing a
preliminary report that the drone managed to enter Tower 22 because it was
mistaken for another friendly drone returning to the base. (The Intercept
later reported that the base lacked adequate air defenses
<https://theintercept.com/2024/02/06/tower-22-drone-troops-air-defense/>.)
Despite the account pointing to a drone presence, few questioned the
Pentagon’s refrain that base’s purpose was logistics.

In interviews with defense sources and experts, however, a picture emerges
of Tower 22’s purpose as a key base from which to support hostilities with
Iran-aligned groups, even as the Biden administration insists that it does
not want war with Tehran. The shift in its mission, from fighting ISIS to
fighting groups linked with Iran, has not been acknowledged by the Defense
Department, which still insists that this is part of its war on ISIS. (The
Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.)

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin saidOpens in a new tab
<https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3659809/3-us-service-members-killed-others-injured-in-jordan-following-drone-attack/>
that the troops killed by a kamikaze drone on January 28 were deployed
there “to work for the lasting defeat of ISIS.” U.S. forces continue to
operate in Syria under the legal basis of Operation Inherent Resolve, the
Pentagon’s name for the international campaign against ISIS that began in
2014. But experts say it’s unlikely that counter-ISIS mission is the main
focus.

Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser and now with the
International Crisis Group, a think tank that works to prevent and resolve
wars, said, “Whatever they’re doing there, there’s very little evidence
that it’s counter-ISIS.”
Counter-ISIS Mission?

When ISIS was driven from their strongholds years ago, the withdrawal of
U.S forces from Syria finally seemed within reach. “We have defeated ISIS
in Syria, my only reason for being there,” former President Donald Trump
said in 2018, later announcing that he would withdraw all U.S. troops from
the country.

Finucane explained that Trump was outmaneuvered by hawks, like his national
security adviser at the time, John Bolton, who wanted to maintain the troop
presence but with a new focus: Iran.

One of Tower 22’s functions is to provide support to Al-Tanf, a nearby U.S.
military base in Syria whose official purpose is to combat ISIS. A Pentagon
inspector general report last year found thatOpens in a new tab
<https://media.defense.gov/2023/Nov/27/2003347442/-1/-1/1/OIR_Q4_SEP2023_FINAL_508.PDF>
there were “no kinetic engagements,” or combat incidents, by coalition
forces at Al-Tanf.

While Tower 22 may have provided logistics such as food and fuel for
training operations at Al-Tanf, the lack of combat involving troops at the
larger base indicates a diminished role for both facilities in the fight
against ISIS.

“If Tanf doesn’t have a counter-ISIS function, it’s hard to see how a
support facility for Tanf does,” said Finucane.

The inspector general report, covering data through September 30, preceded
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza has
spurred an intensified conflict with Iranian-backed groups in the region.
The group that claimed credit for the attack on Tower 22 that killed three
troops cited as its motivation U.S. support for Israel in the war, as The
Intercept has previously reported
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/29/us-israel-relationship-jordan-attack/>.

Amid the increase in fighting, the U.S. is faced with a conundrum: how to
respond to attacks from groups that the anti-ISIS coalition was not meant
to fight.

“The counter-ISIS mission is the only legal basis there is for the U.S. to
be there,” said Finucane. “There’s no legal basis to have U.S. troops in
Syria to be countering Iran.”

The Pentagon’s solution has been to cast military operations against these
Iranian-aligned groups as defensive in nature and necessary for force
protection, which the legal basis for the anti-ISIS mission allows for.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon announcedOpens in a new tab
<https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/3669808/uscentcom-conducts-strike-killing-kataib-hezbollah-senior-leader/>
that it had killed a militia commander for participating in attacks on U.S.
forces in the region, a likely reference to Tower 22.

“The United States will continue to take necessary action to protect our
people,” the Defense Department said, emphasizing the self-defense framing.
“We will not hesitate to hold responsible all those who threaten our
forces’ safety.”
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