A little-discussed
American military outpost in the desert
on
the northeastern reaches of Jordan
has become the focus of international attention after a drone strike killed three American soldiers and wounded at least 34 others there.
The base, known as Tower 22, is located near the demilitarized zone on the Jordan-Syria border, along a sandy, bulldozed berm that marks the southern edge of the DMZ.
The Iraqi border is only 10 kilometers away.
The area is known as
Rukban
, a vast arid region that once saw a
refugee camp
emerge on the Syrian side following the rise of the ISIS group's so-called caliphate in 2014.
At its peak, more than 100,000 people lived there, with Jordan preventing them from crossing into the kingdom over concerns about infiltration by the extremist group.
Those concerns arose from
a 2016 car bomb attack
that killed seven Jordanian border guards.
The camp has since been reduced to about 7,500 people due to a lack of supplies reaching it, according to United Nations estimates.
The base's location offers a site for US forces to infiltrate and quietly leave Syria.
Photo: AFP
The base began as a Jordanian outpost guarding the border
, then saw an increased US presence
there after US forces entered Syria in late 2015. The small facility includes
US
engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops
. US with around 350
US
Army and Air Force personnel deployed.
there.
It is
one of the largest and most strategic bases of the United States in the
Middle East region and its main function is to support military operations in the area, especially in the fight against terrorism and the stabilization of the region.
It is also used to train and equip Jordanian military forces and to conduct humanitarian aid operations in the region.
The base's location offers a site for US forces to infiltrate and quietly leave Syria.
A small American garrison at al-Tanf in Syria is just 20 kilometers north of Tower 22. That base is along a Syrian highway that leads to Iraq and eventually Mosul, which was once a prominent base of the group. ISIS.
It is also a possible weapons shipment route to Iran.
The risks
U.S. troops have long used Jordan, a kingdom bordering Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian West Bank, Saudi Arabia and Syria,
as a base.
Typically, about 3,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Jordan.
However, the American presence in Jordan
risks angering a population
that has already held massive demonstrations against Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip over civilian casualties in a conflict that has already killed more than 26,000 Palestinians. .
Estimates suggest that about 3 million of Jordan's 11.5 million people are Palestinians.
The base is hidden under the clouds in the Jordanian desert.
Photo: AP
Widespread unrest
could threaten the government of King Abdullah II,
a key US ally.
Jordan initially
denied that the Tower 22 base existed
within its border after Sunday's attack.