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The Pentagon is covering up the real purpose of Tower 22: targeting the very Iran-backed militant groups that attacked 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 described 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. “The counter-ISIS mission is the only legal basis there is for the U.S. to be there,” said Finucane. “There’s no legal basis to have U.S. troops in Syria to be countering Iran.”
“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.”
An early news story on the drone attack that killed the U.S. service members cited unnamed officials discussing a preliminary report that the drone managed to enter Tower 22 because it was mistaken for another friendly drone returning to the base. (The Intercept later reported that the base lacked adequate air defenses.) Despite the account pointing to a drone presence, few questioned the Pentagon’s refrain that base’s purpose was logistics.
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Initial rumors were that they were training rebels to fight against the Syrian government there which now likely turn out not to be true because it’s a drone base.
This is pretty interesting info.
Initial reports I read said the reason why the attack worked so well is because this was a drone recon base. That people were caught off guard because they’re used to seeing drones all the time. Didn’t initially suspect the ones flying in were hostile.
That was within hours of it being reported too. This “secret base” angle seems kinda blown out of proportion.
The US said that this was not a drone but a logistics base. Hence this is actually a revelation. A drone landing is suspicious but does not confirm the entire base is for bombing and surveillance.
From what I have read online in the last (these were pure rumors) people suggested that the base was used to train rebels to fight against their governments.
@Linkerbaan @gardylou The US is perfectly capable of multi-tasking doing unconscionable things.
A military base performing basic military activities like recon is hardly surprising or exceptional.
It being primarily used for that instead of “logistics” contradicts the official American statements though.
Most important is that they’re not targeting ISIS but Syria and Iraqi groups.
Nobody should take anything the military says without a grain of salt. Either it’s a strategic secret they’re lying about or an embarrassing one.
So sorry about your super ripped navy seal son, there was an unfortunate training accident. No, you can’t have the body back.