Pentagon identifies the 3 US troops killed by Jordanian security forces

The US Defence Department on Sunday identified three US Army trainers killed on Friday when their convoy came under fire as it entered a military base in Jordan.

The Pentagon said the three were members part of an Army Special Forces Group based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

In a statement, it identified the dead soldiers as Staff Sergeants Matthew C. Lewellen, 27, of Lawrence, Kansas; Kevin J. McEnroe, 30, of Tucson, Arizona; and James F. Moriarty, 27, of Kerrville, Texas.

Details of the deadly incident – unusual given the close political and military ties between Washington and Amman – remain under investigation.

A Jordanian military source told Reuters the US trainers were fired on by Jordanian security forces when they failed to stop at the gate of Prince Faisal air base in the south of the country. Other Jordanian sources, however, said they could not rule out political motives in the incident.

Jordan hosts several hundred US contractors in a military program to bolster the kingdom’s defences, which includes the stationing of F-16 fighter jets that use Jordanian airfields to hit Daesh positions in neighbouring Syria.

But Jordan’s role in the war against Daesh has raised disquiet among some Jordanians about instability on their borders.

The last incident involving US personnel was in November last year when a Jordanian officer shot dead two US government security contractors and a South African at a US-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. Security sources later said that the gunman was a Daesh sympathiser, while others disputed this and said he simply had strong anti-Western feelings.