In this file picture, U.S. soldiers walk while on patrol by the Suwaydiyah oil fields in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah. (File photo by AFP)
Beirut, January 28 (RHC)-- A drone attack on a small US outpost in Jordan has left three American service members dead and at least 25 others injured. The attack took place at Tower 22 in Jordan near the border with Syria on Sunday, marking the first U.S. troops to have been killed in the region since the beginning of the Gaza war in early October.
In a statement, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that three American soldiers were killed and 25 injured in a one-way drone attack that “impacted at a base in northeast Jordan.”
"On January 28, three U.S. service members were killed and 25 injured from a one-way attack UAS that impacted at a base in northeast Jordan, near the Syria border." The CENTCOM said, in accordance with DoD policy, the identities of the service members will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified.
A U.S. official told Reuters news agency that at least 34 service members were being examined for possible traumatic brain injury. In December, U.S. officials said that military bases housing American troops in Iraq and Syria had been attacked at least 97 times since October 17th.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said the attack sent a clear message to the United States. “The killing of three American soldiers is a message to the American administration that unless the killing of innocent people in Gaza stops, it must confront the entire Ummah,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas spokesperson, said in a statement.
“The continuation of the American-Zionist aggression against Gaza is capable of setting the entire region ablaze,” he added.