Asked whether the failure to shoot down the enemy drone was due to "human error," the Pentagon said U.S. Central Command was still evaluating the matter.
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Wang Jimin
Wang Jimin
[New Sancai Compilation First] U.S. officials said on January 29 that the U.S. military may have mistook an enemy drone for a U.S. drone and allowed it to enter a desert U.S. military base in Jordan without challenge, causing damage there. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens were injured.
As details of the Jan. 28 attack emerge, U.S. President Joe Biden faces a difficult balancing act of blaming Iran and hoping to hit back forcefully, but On the one hand, it does not want to further escalate the conflict in Gaza.
A U.S. drone was also returning to a base known as Tower 22 when the enemy drone flew at low altitude, according to preliminary reports cited by two U.S. officials, who were not authorized to publish. Comment and remain anonymous.
As a result, the air defense network at the US military base did not intercept the enemy drone. A trailer at the base took the brunt of the attack, while surrounding trailers sustained limited damage from the explosion and flying debris.
In addition to the three killed, more than 40 troops were injured in the attack, the Pentagon said, most of them with cuts, bruises, brain injuries and similar wounds. Eight people were taken to hospital, three of them to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Five other people with minor brain injuries are expected to return to work.
Asked whether the failure to shoot down the enemy drone was due to "human error," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singer responded that U.S. Central Command was still evaluating the matter.
The White House said it was not seeking war with Iran despite Biden's vow of retaliation. The Democratic administration believes Tehran is behind the attack.
The brazen attack, which the Biden administration blamed on Iranian proxies, complicates an already tense Middle East as it seeks to prevent Israel's war with Hamas from expanding into a broader regional conflict.
"The president and I will not tolerate attacks on U.S. troops and we will take whatever actions necessary to defend the United States and our troops," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Pentagon. . ”
The drone attack was one of dozens of attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East since Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, triggering the war in Gaza. But it was the first time a U.S. service member had been killed.
However, Iran denied on January 29 that it was behind the attack in Jordan.
Republicans accuse Biden of doing too little to deter Iranian militias, which have launched some 165 attacks on U.S. forces in the region since the war began.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday called the attack "another terrible and tragic consequence of Joe Biden's weakness and capitulation."
The attack hit a U.S. military desert outpost known as "Tower 22" in a remote area of northeastern Jordan. The post is located near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria, along a bulldozed sand bank that marks the southern edge of the demilitarized zone. It is only 10 kilometers from the Iraqi border.
(Compiled by: Wang Jimin)
(Editor: Jiang Qiming)
(Source of the article: First published by Xinsancai)
