The Pentagon is covering up the real purpose of Tower 22: targeting the very Iran-backed militants that launched a drone attack last month.

Tower 22, the U.S. base in Jordan where three American service members were killed last month, is not simply a “logistics support base,” as the Pentagon has describedOpens in a new tab it.

What the Pentagon hasn’t mentioned is that Tower 22 is also a drone base conducting long-range reconnaissance on militants in neighboring Syria and Iraq for airstrikes, according to two U.S. military sources. The base also serves as a staging facility for special operations forces and a medevac helicopter home base.

And while the Pentagon says Tower 22’s mission was to combat the Islamic State, or ISIS, since Hamas’s assault on Israel in October, its focus has turned to Iran-backed militia groups.

“To call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit,” an Air Force airman, whose unit was recently stationed at the base, told The Intercept. Logistics was a small part of the mission, amounting to weekly food and fuel deliveries to the nearby Al-Tanf base.

“The main purpose of Tower 22 is to operate drones to spy on insurgents in Iraq and Syria, for targeting purposes,” the airman said. “The main objective I witnessed was taking out targets.”

read more: https://theintercept.com/2024/02/09/us-base-jordan-tower-22-troops-iran-backed-militias/

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    What the Pentagon hasn’t mentioned is that Tower 22 is also a drone base conducting long-range reconnaissance on militants in neighboring Syria and Iraq for airstrikes, according to two U.S. military sources.

    And while the Pentagon says Tower 22’s mission was to combat the Islamic State, or ISIS, since Hamas’s assault on Israel in October, its focus has turned to Iran-backed militia groups.

    In interviews with defense sources and experts, however, a picture emerges of Tower 22’s purpose as a key base from which to support hostilities with Iran-aligned groups, even as the Biden administration insists that it does not want war with Tehran.

    Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser and now with the International Crisis Group, a think tank that works to prevent and resolve wars, said, “Whatever they’re doing there, there’s very little evidence that it’s counter-ISIS.”

    Finucane explained that Trump was outmaneuvered by hawks, like his national security adviser at the time, John Bolton, who wanted to maintain the troop presence but with a new focus: Iran.

    While Tower 22 may have provided logistics such as food and fuel for training operations at Al-Tanf, the lack of combat involving troops at the larger base indicates a diminished role for both facilities in the fight against ISIS.

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