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| A general view of hangars at a desert military training facility where U.S. forces _ and a handful of British allies _ are training Jordanian commandos in Russeifeh, Jordan, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012. Jordanian officials tell The Associated Press that the military planners are here to help them develop a blueprint to defend Jordan and its population in case of a chemical attack from neighboring Syria.(AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon) |
RUSSEIFEH, Jordan (AP) — From the edge of a steep mountain
overlooking a desert compound built into an old rock quarry, machine
gunfire echoes just outside hangars where U.S. special operations forces
are training Jordanian commandos.
The Americans, who arrived in
the kingdom a few weeks ago at the request of the Jordanians, are
helping them develop techniques to protect civilians in case of a
chemical attack from neighboring Syria, according to Jordanian
officials.
On the Syrian border farther north, British military
officers recently assessed the dangers of rockets constantly falling on
the kingdom and ways to shield the Jordanian population and Syrian
refugees as President Bashar Assad widens his military offensive against
rebel enclaves in the vicinity, according to Jordan-based Western
diplomats.
Jordan's King Abdullah II has repeatedly discussed
plans for reinforcing security along the Syrian border and expressed
concern over Syria's chemical stockpiles in meetings with visiting
Western allies, according to the two diplomats, who monitor Syria from
their base.
They said it is believed that Abdullah has also been
shopping around for an anti-missile defense system to shield his densely
populated capital, Amman — home to nearly half of Jordan's population.
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| A Jordanian Military Helicopter passes over Amman, Jordan, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012. A contingent of U.S. forces _ and a handful of British allies _ are training Jordanian commandos at a desert facility, where according to Jordanian officials, the military planners are in the country to help them develop a blueprint to defend Jordan and its population in case of a chemical attack from neighboring Syria. An initial contingent of 150 U.S. and a handful of British planners at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center northeast of the Jordanian capital is a clear message to Bashar Assad that Jordan's longtime Western allies stand ready to defend it if he tried to drag his smaller neighbor into his 18-month conflict. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon) |
There
is also talk of contingency plans for a quick pre-emptive strike if
Assad loses control over his stock of chemical weapons in the civil war.
The fear is that those weapons might otherwise fall into the hands of
al-Qaida or Lebanon's Islamic militant group Hezbollah.
"There are
dangers involved, and we have to ensure the safety of our country and
the well-being of our citizens," a senior government official said in
the first public Jordanian confirmation of the presence of foreign
military personnel here. "We are benefiting from the experience of our
allies as we prepare for the worst scenarios."
The presence of
some 150 Americans at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training
Center northeast of the capital is a clear message to Assad that
Jordan's longtime Western allies stand ready to defend the country if it
is dragged into the 19-month Syria conflict.
Assad's regime,
which is believed to have one of the world's largest chemical weapons
programs, has said it might use them against external threats but not
against Syrians.
But the Jordanians worry that Assad may use his
chemical weapons against his neighbors, or his countrymen, if he felt
that his days in power were numbered.
In May, the U.S. held joint
exercises with Jordan, nicknamed the "Eager Lion," which focused on the
ways to deal with a chemical weapons attack.
On Wednesday, U.S.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said at a NATO conference of defense
ministers in Brussels that the U.S. has been working with Jordan to
monitor chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria and was helping
Jordan deal with refugees pouring over the border.
Although the
senior government official insisted that the Americans were "advisers,
not troops," two senior U.S. defense officials said most were Army
special operations forces. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly about the
mission.
The troops are operating out of a military center near
Amman and have moved back and forth to the Syrian border. Their work
involves gathering intelligence and planning joint Jordanian-U.S.
military maneuvers, one U.S. official said.
The revelation of U.S.
military personnel so close to the Syrian conflict suggests an
escalation in the American involvement, even as the Obama administration
pushes back on any suggestion of a direct intervention in Syria.
The
Jordanian official insisted that the kingdom was "capable of shielding
itself from Syrian attack," but London-based Mideast analyst Rosemary
Hollis disagreed.
"For Jordan, the more unstable Syria becomes,
the deeper the crisis proceeds, the more likely Jordan will suffer from
all kinds of spillover, but they are incapable of doing anything to
intervene to try to turn the conflict in one direction rather than
another unless they have the ballast, cover and involvement of serious
international forces, which is the Americans," Hollis said.
She
also saw the American military presence as a step toward possible future
military operations to secure Syria's chemical stockpiles.
Torbjorn
Soltvedt, a senior analyst with the Britain-based Maplecroft risk
analysis group, said he saw the current situation as a "monitoring and
training stage."
"Given the degree to which Syria's chemical
weapons stockpiles have been dispersed across the country, an operation
to secure them would be extensive and require significant numbers of
troops," he said. "The Pentagon has estimated that an operation to
secure Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles could require as much as
75,000 troops given the presence of several chemical agent manufacturing
plants and many more storage sites throughout the country."
Panetta
said that while the U.S. believes the weapons are still secure,
intelligence suggests the regime might have moved some to protect them.
Steven
Bucci, an expert in chemical weapons at the Heritage Foundation, has
told Congress there might be as many as 50 chemical weapons sites in
Syria. He said in an interview Wednesday that Syria's stockpile is
potentially "like a gift from God" for militants since they don't have
the know-how to assemble such weapons, while some of Syria's chemical
agents are believed to have already been fitted into missile warheads.
At
the desert facility, stretching 25 kilometers (16 miles) on the edge of
this predominantly Palestinian suburb, Jordanian soldiers guard the
walled compound, where Iraqi and Libyan special forces once received
training. They refused to allow reporters in.
Jordanian officials
were eager to downplay the U.S. role, concerned about the possibility of
raising tensions with Syria and giving the kingdom's largely
conservative population the impression that they were allowing
foreigners to use Jordan as a potential launching pad for a pre-emptive
attack against another Arab country.
The senior government
official and two others who discussed the American military role all
spoke on condition of anonymity, citing possible diplomatic
sensitivities with Syria. Assad is thought to have sleeper cells
scattered across the kingdom and plotting attacks on Syrian opposition
and Jordanian figures.
Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah, the
only official who spoke on the record, said the U.S. presence was part
of "routine training exercises."
"Jordan and U.S. forces exchange
visits regularly, and the presence of tens of their forces here is part
of efforts to expand cooperation, exchange capabilities and protect
regional stability," he said in an interview. He declined to elaborate
or comment on any link to the Syrian crisis.
Amman has long had
bumpy relations with Damascus because of its alliance with the United
States — Jordan's largest donor of economic and military aid — and its
1994 peace treaty with Israel.
Jordan would like to see the Syrian
regime toppled because of growing concern that Assad's key ally, Iran,
is trying to spark Shiite uprisings in Arab countries ruled by members
of the rival Sunni sect. Assad's ruling Alawite minority is an offshoot
of Shiite Islam.
Abdullah was the first Arab leader to warn in
2004 of the sweep of Iran's "Shiite crescent," stretching from Lebanon
through Syria and Iraq.
Jordanian officials have advocated a
buffer zone inside the Syrian border to protect civilians fleeing
bombardment. There is mounting speculation that Jordan would dispatch
highly skilled special forces to secure such a zone when Assad's regime
falls to prevent chaos on its border.
In the past six weeks, more
than 20 Syrian rockets have fallen on Jordanian villages near the
border. At least two people were wounded, including a 4-year-old
Jordanian girl.
The two Western diplomats said the Britons, about a
half-dozen officers specialized in intelligence gathering and special
operations techniques, visited Jordan a few times over the past three
months. The diplomats insisted on anonymity, saying that public comment
may hamper their information gathering on Syria.
The Jordanian
army already has an extensive presence on the border and has been
assisting waves of Syrian refugees, who are straining the country's
meager resources, mainly health care, water and utilities.
Jordan
hosts some 200,000 Syrian refugees, more than any other neighboring
country. Some come under constant firing from their army as they cross
into the kingdom. Jordanian border guards have been wounded and a
6-year-old Syrian boy was killed in July.
Jordanian men also are
moving the other way across the border, joining what intelligence
officials have estimated to be about 2,000 foreigners fighting alongside
Syrian rebels trying to topple Assad.
Associated Press writer Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
