April 07 2025
A drone attack by Iran-backed Iraqi militias that killed three US soldiers in Jordan last year was most likely preventable, according to a military investigation that concluded numerous failures — from complacency and indecisiveness to outright negligence — contributed to the worst assault on American troops since the fall of Afghanistan.
The small outpost, known as Tower 22, is along Jordan’s border with Syria and Iraq, and largely had been spared from the assaults on American positions in those countries by Iranian proxies furious with the United States for its support of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. However, on the morning of January 28, 2024, while most of the base’s 350 troops slept, there were indications an attack might be imminent, Army investigators learned.
An intelligence report transmitted to Tower 22 approximately 90 minutes before the strike warned that militia groups had discussed openly on social media their intent to target US forces in the area, prompting Tower 22’s second-in-command to tell the watch team to “stay vigilant.” But whentheir radar picked up an unknown object heading toward the base,no one assessed it as a threat — and no one issued an order for everyone to take cover, the investigation found.
Four minutes later, a powerful explosion struck the base’s living quarters.
Those who died were Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, 24, Staff Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23. All three were reservists from Georgia and Black. More than 70 personnel were wounded, some seriously.
The Washington Post reported on the investigation April 6 based on a 4,500-page official investigative report The Post obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.
The incident is the only deadly strike on US troops since Iranian-backed militants unleashed their campaign of violence in response to the Gaza war.
The Post said the Sanders family was told that four officers faced disciplinary action as a result of their response to the attack. The investigation does not identify them or detail what their punishment was.
