Three American military trainers killed in Jordan

The incident raised serious questions as a year ago, almost to the day, a Jordanian police captain killed two American contractors in a shooting spree at another training facility.

In the shootings at a police training center in Amman, a Jordanian police captain killed the two Americans along with two fellow Jordanians and a South African. The deaths raised fears of rising extremism in a country that has largely resisted ISIS influence.

The Jordanian government subsequently said the police captain had been a “troubled” man but security sources said he was an ISIS supporter. The relationship between two longtime allies has grown tense since.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US personnel in Jordan were part of an “ongoing” training mission. “The United States is interested in getting to the bottom of what occurred,” he added.

The three were shot dead in an exchange of fire at an air base in Jordan, a US official confirmed. One was killed at the base and two others died later in the King Hussein Hospital in Amman, the capital. Jordan said one of its soldiers was wounded as well.

Their vehicles approached the gate of a military training centre at al-Jafr air base when they came under small-arms fire, the official added. The incident happened around midday local time (10:00 GMT).

An earlier statement from the Jordanian military said the car they were in failed to stop at the gate and was fired upon by security forces.

But the Pentagon and the White House said they would launch an investigation to determine exactly what had happened. Neither the Americans who were killed were named nor their unit.

It was not clear whether the Americans who were killed were driving or being driven. The Jordanians said there was an exchange of gunfire, but the Americans did not confirm that. They only expressed surprise at the unlikely explanation of training personnel ignoring a stop sign at an entrance.

AFP news agency quoted a US defence official who called the killings a “green on blue” incident, a military term for when friendly forces attack US personnel.

“But we can’t say for the moment if it was a deliberate” act to kill US personnel or “some kind of misunderstanding,” the official told the news agency.

American and Jordanian soldiers conducted a live-fire military exercise together just last month. The New York Times reported that the CIA and “Arab partners” are running a training program for “Syrian rebels” on Jordanian territory.

In June this year the Times reported weapons shipped into Jordan by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market.

Also in June, an attack on a Jordanian intelligence service office in a Palestinian refugee camp near Amman killed five people.