Three U.S. service members were killed and dozens wounded during an unmanned aerial drone attack on U.S. forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, U.S. officials said on Sunday.
At least 34 personnel were being evaluated for possible traumatic brain injury, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Two different officials said some wounded U.S. forces were medically evacuated from the base for further treatment.
A fourth official said the drone struck near the barracks, which, if confirmed, could explain the high number of casualties.
3 US service members were killed, 25 injured by a drone attack in northeast Jordan, near the Syrian border per CENTCOM pic.twitter.com/KwpNF4bJkx
— Margaret Brennan (@margbrennan) January 28, 2024
The attack is a major escalation of the already tense situation in the Middle East, where war broke out in Gaza after the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 killed 1,200. Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 26,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry.
While the United States has thus far maintained an official line that Washington is not at war in the region, it has made strikes against targets of Yemen’s Houthi groups that have been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
The U.S. military said the attack occurred at a base in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border. It did not name the base. U.S. military activity in Jordan can be a sensitive issue, particularly at a time of heightened tensions of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
A Jordanian government spokesman told state TV that the militants targeted a different base, outside Jordanian territory.
It is unclear which Iran-backed group may have carried out the attack but several U.S. officials said they did not believe that Iranian military forces themselves launched the one-way attack drone.
“While we’re still gathering facts, this is most assuredly the work of an Iranian-backed militia group,” a second official said.
