Iran has been increasingly targeting Jordan for attacks like the one on Friday that killed two American soldiers. The reason, say analysts, is because Jordan has been playing a very important role in US military operations against Iran.
The US and Jordan have long had military, intelligence and counter-terrorism cooperation and Jordan hosts major US air bases. US officials say Washington increasingly relied on Jordan before and in the early days of the war against Iran, as the Pentagon moved large numbers of troops from the Gulf Arab states of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to safer areas in Jordan and Israel’s neighbors.
Jordan’s role grew as other US allies in the region limited Washington’s ability to station troops and fly planes over their territories, US officials said.
But unlike the resource-rich Gulf-nations, Jordan relies heavily on the US for foreign aid and is not in a strong position to deny Washington’s wishes.
Omid Memarian, an Iran analyst at DAWN, a Washington-based think tank that focuses on the Middle East, said on Sunday that he thinks Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia are “now very reluctant to allow the US to use its bases to attack Iran,” after Iran retaliated against them. “But Jordan, because of its security agreement with the US and the one-sided, strong relationship Washington has with Jordan, cannot refuse.”
On Sunday, Jordan evacuated the international airport and port in the coastal city of Aqaba after a “certain and credible incident,” the US ambassador there said. The country’s air defense forces later shot down three Iranian missiles targeting the country, the Jordanian military said, and the fourth landed in an uninhabited area.
During the first phase of the war, Iran focused on retaliating against Israel and the Gulf Arab countries that helped the United States. But now that the conflict has entered a new phase, as the US-Iran cease fire, the military picture seems to have changed.
On Friday, an Iranian attack on a military base in Jordan killed two American soldiers and left another soldier missing, according to US officials. It was the fourth attack by the US military in Jordan last week, which left dozens of US soldiers injured and destroyed dozens of helicopters.
The first attack hit a residential complex at King Faisal Air Base, injuring at least five American service members. The second hit a base in eastern Jordan, damaging dozens of US Blackhawk helicopters.
Two days later, officials said, Iranian missiles hit the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq, which is the base of the US Air Force, in a violent attack, injuring about 20 American soldiers who were rushing to hide in underground areas. That base was attacked again on Friday, when two soldiers were killed and four were injured.
Iran said on Friday it had launched missile strikes targeting fuel tanks at the US base in Azraq, Jordan, as well as missiles and drones to target air raid shelters, according to Fars News Agency, Iran’s unofficial news agency. Iran has previously claimed that it targeted radars and communications systems used by the US military.
American troops have long been out of Jordanian airfields and there are about 4,000 service members in the country, according to a recent congressional report.
At the beginning of this month, the Jordanian army chief, Maj. Gen. Yousef Hunaiti and US Deputy Defense Secretary Daniel Zimmerman met and discussed expanding military and defense cooperation and relations between the two countries, according to Jordan’s Petra news agency.
US economic and military aid to Jordan, dating back to the 1950s, has tripled in the past 15 years. In fiscal year 2025, the US gave Jordan about 33.8 billion.
