AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordan condemned on Sunday the “terrorist attack” on a military advance post just inside its border with Syria that killed three U.S. military and injured dozens, and said it was cooperating with Washington to secure its frontier.
In the first official statement on the attack, staunch U.S. ally Jordan said it was working with Washington to fight terrorism. Earlier, a government spokesperson had said the attack was on a U.S. base in Syria adjacent to the border but not on Jordanian soil.
A senior Jordanian security source told Reuters that Jordan had recently appealed for more advanced U.S. defence hardware and support because of worries Iran and its proxies could become embroiled more deeply in any wider Middle East conflagration.
Jordan had also requested Patriot air defence systems from Washington as part of its growing concern about being caught in the crossfire if the war in Gaza pulls in Iran and its well-armed regional militias on the kingdom’s borders.
The presence of U.S. troops in Jordan is a sensitive matter in a country where anti-U.S. sentiment runs high because of Washington’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas.
Jordan’s government signed a defence deal with the United States in January 2021, offering U.S. forces “unimpeded access” to several Jordanian military facilities, storage sites for pre-positioning equipment, and other installations.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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