Author: Haaretz and Reuters

Posted November 13, 2016

“A gunman opened fire and killed three American military trainers outside an airbase in Jordan at the beginning of the month.”

Members of a U.S. Army carry team move the flag-draped transfer case holding the remains of Army Staff Sgt. Kevin J. McEnroe who died November 4 in Jafr, Jordan. Credit: Alex Wong, AFP

The U.S. suspects that shooting of three U.S. military trainers in Jordan last Friday was an act of terror, CNN reported Saturday. Initial reports said they were shot when their car failed to stop at the gate of a military base and was then fired on by Jordanian security forces, a Jordanian military source told Reuters at the time.

The incident occurred at the Prince Faisal air base in the south of the country, a close ally of the United States. Two trainers died immediately and a third died later in hospital.

A Jordanian army guard was also shot and wounded.

«There was an exchange of fire at the entrance to the base after an attempt by the trainers’ vehicle to enter the gate without heeding orders of the guards to stop,» the military source said.

«An investigation is now under way to know exactly what happened.»

Another Jordanian security source said it was not possible to rule out political motives in the incident at an air base where dozens of U.S. trainers work alongside Jordanians.

 

Anti-American sentiment

 

Many ordinary Jordanians harbor strong anti-American sentiment over Washington’s strong support for Israel and its military interventions in the region.

Several incidents this year have jolted the Arab kingdom, which has been relatively unscathed by the instability that has swept the region since 2011.

Jordan hosts several hundred U.S. contractors in a military program which includes the stationing of F-16 fighter jets that use Jordanian airfields to hit Islamic State positions in neighboring Syria.

Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Washington has spent millions of dollars to help Jordan set up an elaborate surveillance system known as the Border Security Program to stem infiltration by militants from Syria and Iraq.

U.S. officials say aid to Jordan, one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign military assistance, is expected to rise to $800 million in 2016 and grow in future years.

The last incident involving U.S. personnel was in November last year when a Jordanian officer shot dead two U.S. government security contractors and a South African at a U.S.-funded police training facility near Amman before being gunned down.

The incident embarrassed the Jordanian authorities, who did not publicly disclose the motive of the assassin. The gunman was later said by security sources to have been a sympathizer of Islamic State with strong anti-Western feelings.

Six Jordanian border guards were killed in June by an Islamic State suicide bomber who drove a car at speed across the border from Syria and rammed it into a U.S.-funded military post.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/jordan/1.752821