King Faisal Air Base shooting

Last updated
King Faisal Air Base shooting
Location King Faisal Air Base near Al-Jafr, Jordan
Coordinates 30° 20' 19" N 36° 08' 12" E
DateNovember 4, 2016 (2016-11-04)
12 p.m.
Attack type
Mass shooting
Weapons
Deaths3
Injured1 (the perpetrator)
Perpetrator Corporal Marik al-Tuwayha [2]
ConvictedSentenced to life in prison with hard labor.
Charges Murder and intent to kill.

The King Faisal Airbase shooting was a fragging incident that occurred on 4 November 2016 at King Faisal Air Base, a Jordanian air force installation near Al-Jafr, when three U.S. Army Special Forces trainers from 5th SFG who were stationed at the base were deliberately killed by a Jordanian soldier who was guarding the base's entrance. [3] The American soldiers had been returning from a training exercise in a convoy when they were fired upon by First Sergeant Marik al-Tuwayha at a vehicle checkpoint resulting in a shootout.

Contents

The incident marked the second time in less than a year that American trainers had been killed in Jordan and caused a dispute between the governments of the United States and Jordan while also raising questions of what role U.S. soldiers were playing in Jordan. [4] [5] The Jordanian government formally charged al-Tuwayha with murder and intent to kill provoking anger from certain elements of Jordan's population including the influential Howeitat tribe. After a month-long trial, al-Tuwayha was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor in July 2017. [6]

Background

The United States and Jordan have maintained a strong military relationship since 1957 when the U.S. first began sending military aid to Jordan. In fiscal year 2013 the United States sent nearly $1.4 billion of aid to Jordan. In 1996, the United States bestowed Jordan with Major non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status, a designation that, among other things, makes Jordan eligible to receive excess U.S. defense articles, training, and loans of equipment for cooperative research and development. [7] Beginning in 2013, Jordan has also become a popular locale for U.S. training of groups such as Iraqi government troops and moderate Syrian rebels as part of the Syrian Train and Equip Program. [8] [5]

The Syrian Train and Equip Program's roots in Jordan begin in 2013 when the first U.S. special forces trainers arrived in the country to train the program's first recruits. STEP was a CIA ran program and as such U.S. troops participating in it were "detailed" to the CIA in accordance with international law. [5] Jordanian military bases are most often used in the training of selected fighters. [9] One of these bases included King Faisal Air Base, located on the outskirts of Al-Jafr, Jordan, among other covert locations around Jordan. [10]

Action of November 4, 2016

The three victims of the King Faisal Air Base shooting from left to right: SSG Matthew Lewellen, SSG Kevin McEnroe and SSG James Moriarty KEMLJM.jpg
The three victims of the King Faisal Air Base shooting from left to right: SSG Matthew Lewellen, SSG Kevin McEnroe and SSG James Moriarty

Shortly after 12:00pm (ADT) on November 4, 2016, a convoy of four unarmored vehicles arrived at King Faisal air base. The convoy contained four American soldiers who were returning from a day of range training elsewhere. The first vehicle of the convoy passed through the base's sole access control point unimpeded. As the second vehicle approached to enter a Jordanian army guard, Corporal Marik al-Tuwayha, opened fire with his M16 rifle, striking through the windshield of the vehicle and killing Staff Sergeant Kevin McEnroe and Staff Sergeant Matthew Lewellen. The other Americans in the following vehicles shouted in both English and Arabic to Corporal al-Tuwayha to cease fire to no avail. Corporal al-Tuwayha then advanced on the other Americans in the convoy, firing on them as he did so. The two remaining Americans sought cover and returned fire. Staff Sergeant James Moriarty was killed and the remaining American shot Corporal al-Tuwayha with his pistol, critically wounding him and ending the gunbattle. [11]

The Americans in the convoy were not wearing body armor since it was not required to outside of some specified training which contributed to the devastating losses suffered in the shooting. Corporal al-Tuwayha was wearing body armor and was using a rifle while the Americans only had pistols for personal protection. Two of the Americans in the attack were medically evacuated but later died of their wounds. Corporal al-Tuwayha was severely injured and placed in an induced coma, he was taken to the same hospital and allowed in close proximity of them due to the lack of clarity surrounding the shooting. [12]

Investigation

Because of the lack of perceived threat and Jordan's status as an American ally, the US service members were traveling in unarmored vehicles, not wearing body armor and only carrying sidearms. The intelligence report on the incident recommends US forces in the future use armored vehicles and carry at least one rifle with them. [6]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened an investigation into the cause of the shooting. [13] Initially, the Jordanian military attributed the cause of the shooting to a case of friendly fire and insisted the US convoy did not heed orders from the Jordanian guard to stop. The American investigation stated that the shooting appeared to be deliberate. The FBI has investigated the Jordanian guard for links to religious extremism and/or ISIS, though no links have been found. [14] After reviewing video footage, the Jordanian military and King Abdullah II agreed that the US convoy complied with "established procedures at the base" and that the soldiers "did nothing to instigate the attack". [6]

1st Sgt. Marik al-Tuwayha was charged with murder for the attack, and pleaded "not guilty". [15]

Trial and conviction

Al-Tuwayha was convicted of murder in a Jordanian military tribunal and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. In Jordan, "life sentences" last for 20–30 years. [16] [17] [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fragging</span> Deliberate killing or attempted killing of a soldier by a fellow soldier

Fragging is the deliberate or attempted killing of a soldier, usually a superior, by a fellow soldier. U.S. military personnel coined the word during the Vietnam War, when such killings were most often committed or attempted with a fragmentation grenade, to make it appear that the killing was accidental or during combat with the enemy. The term fragging now encompasses any deliberate killing of military colleagues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Improvised explosive device</span> Unconventionally produced bomb

An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechanism. IEDs are commonly used as roadside bombs, or homemade bombs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popular Resistance Committees</span> Coalition of Palestinian groups

The Popular Resistance Committees is a coalition of a number of armed Palestinian groups opposed to what they regard as the conciliatory approach of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah towards Israel.

Academi, formerly known as Blackwater, is an American private military contractor founded on December 26, 1996, by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince. It was renamed Xe Services in 2009, and was again renamed to Academi in 2011, after it was acquired by a group of private investors. In 2014, Academi merged with Triple Canopy to form Constellis Holdings.

The Friendly fire incident at Sangin was a military incident that took place on March 29, 2006. Afghan insurgents mounted an assault on a forward operating base in Helmand province near the town of Lashkar Gah, which had been opened only six weeks earlier and was staffed by 100 ANA soldiers and their American trainers, using small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars.

The Nisour Square massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting, a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy. The killings outraged Iraqis and strained relations between Iraq and the United States. In 2014, four Blackwater employees were tried and convicted in U.S. federal court; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges; all four convicted were controversially pardoned by President Donald Trump in December 2020. U.N. experts said the pardons "violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation al-Shabah</span> Military operation

Operation al-Shabah was launched in May 2013 by the Iraqi Army, with the stated aim of severing contact between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the al-Nusra Front in Syria by clearing militants from the border area with Syria and Jordan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 in aviation</span> List of aviation-related events in 2014

This is a list of aviation-related events from 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spillover of the Syrian Civil War</span> 2011–2019 external impact of the Syrian Civil War

Following the outbreak of the protests of Syrian revolution during the Arab Spring in 2011 and the escalation of the ensuing conflict into a full-scale civil war by mid-2012, the Syrian Civil War became a theatre of proxy warfare between various regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. Spillover of the Syrian civil war into the wider region began when the Iraqi insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) started intervening in the conflict from 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">US intervention in the Syrian civil war</span> Ongoing military intervention in West Asia

On 22 September 2014, the United States officially intervened in the Syrian civil war with the stated aim of fighting the terrorist organization ISIS in support of the international war against it, code named Operation Inherent Resolve. The US currently continues to support the Syrian rebels and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces opposed to both the Islamic State and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordanian intervention in the Syrian civil war</span> Ongoing military conflict between Jordan and the Islamic State

The Jordanian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War began on 22 September 2014, with airstrikes on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets, and escalated after the murder of Muath al-Kasasbeh, a Jordanian pilot who was captured by ISIL when his F-16 Fighter Jet crashed over Syria in early 2015. Though Jordan's strikes in Syria largely tapered off after December 2015, airstrikes have continued through February 2017, and Jordan has continued to support rebel groups in Syria and host military activities of other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syrian Train and Equip Program</span> United States-led military operation

The Syrian Train and Equip Program is a United States-led military operation launched in 2014 that identified and trained selected Syrian opposition forces inside Syria as well as in Turkey and other US-allied states who would then return to Syria to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The program reportedly cost the US $500 million. It is a covert program, run by U.S. special operations forces, separate from Timber Sycamore, the parallel covert program run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As of July 2015, only a group of 54 trained and equipped fighters had been reported to have been deployed, which was quickly routed by al-Nusra, and a further 75 were reported in September 2015.

On 9 November 2015, a Jordanian police officer opened fire on a police training center staff during their lunch break at the cafeteria in Al-Muwaqqar, Amman, Jordan, killing four, including two Americans, a South African, and a Jordanian. Six others were injured, including three Americans, a Lebanese, and two Jordanians, one of whom later died. The gunman was then killed by a fellow Jordanian officer.

This article contains a timeline of events from January 2015 to December 2015 related to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). This article contains information about events committed by or on behalf of the Islamic State, as well as events performed by groups who oppose them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timber Sycamore</span> CIA trains/supplies Syrian civil war rebels

Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by some Arab intelligence services, including Saudi intelligence. The aim of the programme was to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power. Launched in 2012 or 2013, it supplied money, weaponry and training to Syrian opposition militias fighting al-Assad's forces in the Syrian civil war. According to US officials, the program was run by the CIA's Special Activities Division and has trained thousands of rebels. President Barack Obama secretly authorized the CIA to begin arming Syria's embattled rebels in 2013. The program became public knowledge in mid-2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Tanf</span> U.S. military base in Homs Governorate, Syria

Al-Tanf is a U.S. military base in an American occupied part of the Homs Governorate, Syria. It is located 24km west of the al-Walid border crossing in the Syrian Desert. The surrounding deconfliction zone is located along the Iraq–Syria border and the Jordan–Syria border. The garrison is located along a critical road known as the M2 Baghdad–Damascus Highway. The Rukban refugee camp for internally displaced Syrians is located within the deconfliction zone.

The Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war refers to the Iranian–Israeli standoff in and around Syria during the Syrian conflict. With increasing Iranian involvement in Syria from 2011 onwards, the conflict shifted from a proxy war into a direct confrontation by early 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of US intervention in the Syrian civil war</span>

The US intervention in the Syrian civil war is the United States-led support of Syrian opposition and the Federation of Northern Syria during the course of the Syrian Civil War and active military involvement led by the United States and its allies — the militaries of the United Kingdom, France, Jordan, Turkey, Canada, Australia and more — against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Nusra Front since 2014. Since early 2017, the U.S. and other Coalition partners have also targeted the Syrian government and its allies via airstrikes and aircraft shoot-downs.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2020. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian civil war.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2022. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found in Casualties of the Syrian civil war.

References

  1. Browne, Ryan (2017-03-07). "Military finds 3 US soldiers killed in Jordan acted properly, showed 'heroism'". CNN. Archived from the original on 2021-04-17. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
  2. Cox, Matthew (2017-03-07). "Fathers of Slain Green Berets Accuse Jordanian of Murder". Military.com. Archived from the original on 2022-05-24. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  3. "Three Green Berets of 5th Special Forces Killed in Jordan". SOF News. 6 November 2016. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  4. "Jordan policeman kills foreign trainers". BBC News. 2015-11-09. Archived from the original on 2022-01-23. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  5. 1 2 3 Gibbons-Neff, Thomas; Warrick, Joby (12 November 2016). "Army Special Forces soldiers killed in Jordan were working for the CIA". Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2018 via The Washington Post.
  6. 1 2 3 Browne, Ryan. "Jordanian soldier charged with killing 3 US soldiers". CNN. Archived from the original on 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
  7. Congressional Research Service (14 April 2022). "Jordan: Background and U.S. Relations RL33546" (PDF). Federation of American Scientists. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2022.
  8. Klapper, Bradley; Baldor, Lolita C. (23 January 2014). "US developing plans to train Iraqis in Jordan". San Diego Union Tribune. AP News. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022.
  9. "Americans are training Syria rebels in Jordan: Spiegel". Reuters. 10 March 2013. Archived from the original on 2 February 2022.
  10. Martin, David (21 June 2013). "U.S. training Syrian rebels at secret bases". CBS News. Archived from the original on 16 July 2022.
  11. Philipps, Dave; Hubbard, Ben (2017-07-25). "U.S. Soldier Who Survived Shootout in Jordan Tells His Story". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 7 September 2021. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
  12. "SUBJECT: 4 Nov. 2016 King Faisal Air Base Shooting AR 15-6 Investigation Summary" (PDF) (Press release). USSOCOM. 7 March 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2022.
  13. Starr, Barbara; Karadsheh, Jomana; Scott, Eugene (12 November 2016). "US officials probe possible terror motive in Jordan attack". CNN. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  14. Warrick, Joby; Gibbons-Neff, Thomas (21 November 2016). "Investigators: Killing of 3 U.S. soldiers in Jordan appears to have been deliberate". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  15. Laub, Karin; Saad, Reem (June 19, 2017). "Witnesses describe Jordan shooting that killed 3 US troops". Army Times . The defendant, 1st Sgt. Marik al-Tuwayha, allegedly opened fire on the convoy as it waited to enter the base, killing the U.S. Army Green Berets.
  16. "Jordanian soldier receives life sentence over death of three US military trainers". AFP. 17 July 2017. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2018 via TheGuardian.com.
  17. Bendix, Aria (18 July 2017). "Jordanian Soldier Receives Life Sentence for Killing U.S. Military Trainers". TheAtlantic.com. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  18. Saad, Reem; Akour, Omar (17 July 2017). "Jordanian soldier sentenced to life for killing 3 US troops". ABC News. AP News. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.