Posted on 01/30/2024 4:12:59 AM PST by FarCenter
On Sunday, a one-way attack drone killed three US soldiers and injured some 30 others near the border between Syria and Jordan. US President Joe Biden has said his country will respond.
According to the Pentagon, over the past four months, Iranian-backed militants have mounted over 150 attacks on bases occupied by US forces in Iraq and Syria. This has given rise to serious concerns over escalating tensions in the Middle East, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warning of "further spillover" of the war in Gaza into the wider region.
At the same time, the Gaza conflict is also forcing all parties — the Middle Eastern nations that host US bases and the US itself — to evaluate their security partnerships.
Syria: Competing international interests
Sunday's attack took place near the al-Tanf base in Syria close to the Iraqi and Jordanian borders. "Since 2016, [al-Tanf] has served as a launching point for counter-IS operations and training for Syrian opposition factions fighting the jihadist group," the political think tank International Crisis Group stated in a report on the area last week.
About 900 US troops are in Syria, ostensibly as part of the international coalition fighting the extremist group known as the "Islamic State," or IS. The IS group took control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014 but was considered to be largely defeated by 2019.
More recently, observers have said there have been hardly any operations against the IS group. But the border area in this part of northern Syria is a puzzle of competing domestic and international interests, including those of Turkey, Russia, Iran and the US, alongside various Syrian and Syrian-Kurdish actors.
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Jordan: Tricky balancing act
The suicide drone attack this weekend hit what is known as Tower 22, a logistics support base around 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away from the al-Tanf base, crewed by around 350 US troops who are also supposedly there to combat the IS group.
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Iraq: Against IS group?
During and after the US invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, US troop numbers peaked at about 150,000. But over the last two decades that number has been reduced to around 2,500. These troops are also there as part of the international coalition fighting the extremist IS group.
"If we're really honest, the debate [about US presence] has moved on from the anti-IS mission," Sajad Jiyad, a fellow at the Century Foundation, recently told DW. "Iraqis probably have enough capabilities to stop [the IS group] from relaunching a large insurgency."
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Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait: Ally of small Gulf states
By far, the largest US troop deployments are in smaller Gulf states. Altogether Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain host more than 30,000 American military personnel. All three countries are designated "major non-NATO allies."
My understanding is that the purpose of Tower 22 in Jordan is to stop munitions & supplies from Iran getting into Syria & Lebanon. It’s not to stop an uprising
I wonder how many German companies have contracts, secret or otherwise, that will lose them $$$ if Iran expands the war in the Middle East. I’ve been around Germans enough to know that at least some of them still hate the USA, and will get in bed with our enemies in a heartbeat.
As far as I know, Siemans, which is Germany’s 2nd largest company, has been doing business with Iran for decades.
So basically, Tower 22 and the US troops are there to defend Israel from Iran.
Siemens claims to be out of the nuclear reactor business, but I don’t doubt that they made a contribution to Iran’s capability in the recent past. I’d like to know the date on this web page.....
I will never trust Germans so there is that.
In fairness, almost all of Europe's oil comes from the Persian Gulf and Russia.
Not much they can do about that.
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