U.S. fighter jets, 700 more troops to stay in Jordan

WASHINGTON – In a sign of deepening U.S. involvement in the Syrian crisis, the United States is leaving 700 combat-equipped American military personnel in Jordan following the end of a joint U.S.-Jordanian training exercise, President Barack Obama told Congress Friday.

The decision brings to about 1,000 the number of U.S. troops now deployed in Jordan. It came a week after the White House announced that the United States would begin providing light arms to Syrian rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Obama said the troops would remain in Jordan to help provide that country with security, but he did not say specifically what they would be doing.

The 700 U.S. personnel that Obama said would remain in Jordan had been participating in military exercises dubbed Eager Lion. Those exercises ended on Thursday.

The Americans include the crews of two Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries and the logistics, command and communications personnel needed to support those units. The United States also is leaving behind a squadron of 12 to 24 F-16 fighter jets that Jordan asked the United States to keep in the kingdom, Obama said in his letter to Congress.

There already were 300 U.S. troops in Jordan whose official mission is advising the government and training Jordanian forces confronting the fallout of the brutal 2-year-old Syrian civil war, which has driven an estimated 560,000 refugees into the tiny kingdom.

McClatchy-Tribune