US military trainers killed near Jordan airbase: Report

By Leith al-Juneidi

AMMAN (AA) – Two U.S. military trainers were killed Friday outside a military airbase in southern Jordan, according to Jordan’s official Petra news agency.

The news agency quoted a Jordanian military source as saying that the pair had been killed while "trying to drive their vehicle into the Prince Faisal Airbase", located in the Al-Jafr area of Jordan’s southern Maan province.

According to an initial report by Petra, the driver of the vehicle failed to comply with orders to stop given by guards manning the gate.

A Jordanian military officer and a third U.S. trainer were injured in an ensuing exchange of gunfire, the news agency reported, adding that an official investigation into the incident had been launched.

After Petra initially reported the news, however, the news agency published a second version of the story that omitted the sentence about the U.S. trainers’ reported failure to comply with guards’ orders to stop.

A government source later told Anadolu Agency that the initial Petra report had only been "preliminary".

Speaking anonymously due to restrictions on communicating with media, the source added that details of the incident would not be available until thorough investigations had been carried out.