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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://theintercept.com/2024/02/09/us-base-jordan-tower-22-troops-iran-backed-militias/">theintercept.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">“Logistics” Outpost in Jordan Where 3 U.S. Troops Died Is Secretly a Drone Base</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ken Klippenstein</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">February 9, 2024<br></div>
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<p><u>Tower 22</u>, 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 <a href="https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/3658552/update-us-casualties-in-northeast-jordan-near-syrian-border/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">has described<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> it. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<blockquote>“To call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit.”</blockquote>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>Tower 22 provided targeting intelligence to Air Force assets stationed at other bases in Jordan, such as <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/16/pentagon-jordan-military-air-base/">Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, to use in strikes, the airman said</a>.</p>
<p>An early <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jordan-drone-attack-attack-confusion-f175962e058b9b6f668303faf248d8e6" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">news story on the drone attack<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
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 <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/02/06/tower-22-drone-troops-air-defense/">lacked adequate air defenses</a>.) Despite the account pointing to a drone presence, few questioned the Pentagon’s refrain that base’s purpose was logistics.</p>
<p>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.)</p>
<p>Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3659809/3-us-service-members-killed-others-injured-in-jordan-following-drone-attack/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<h2 id="gmail-h-counter-isis-mission">Counter-ISIS Mission?</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2023/Nov/27/2003347442/-1/-1/1/OIR_Q4_SEP2023_FINAL_508.PDF" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">found that<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> there were “no kinetic engagements,” or combat incidents, by coalition forces at Al-Tanf. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“If Tanf doesn’t have a counter-ISIS function, it’s hard to see how a support facility for Tanf does,” said Finucane.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/29/us-israel-relationship-jordan-attack/">previously reported</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the Pentagon <a href="https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/3669808/uscentcom-conducts-strike-killing-kataib-hezbollah-senior-leader/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">announced<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
that it had killed a militia commander for participating in attacks on
U.S. forces in the region, a likely reference to Tower 22.</p>
<p>“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.” </p>
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