US troops in the Middle East: Soldiers in the line of fire

Their original mission ended years ago, but US soldiers are still stationed in Syria and Iraq. As regional tensions mount, some are questioning ongoing US military presence in the Middle East.

On Sunday, a one-way attack drone killed three US soldiers and injured some 30 others near the border between Syria and Jordan. US President Joe Biden has said his country will respond.

According to the Pentagon, over the past four months, Iranian-backed militants have mounted over 150 attacks on bases occupied by US forces in Iraq and Syria. This has given rise to serious concerns over escalating tensions in the Middle East, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warning of "further spillover" of the war in Gaza into the wider region.

At the same time, the Gaza conflict is also forcing all parties — the Middle Eastern nations that host US bases and the US itself — to evaluate their security partnerships.

Syria: Competing international interests

Sunday's attack took place near the al-Tanf base in Syria close to the Iraqi and Jordanian borders. "Since 2016, [al-Tanf] has served as a launching point for counter-IS operations and training for Syrian opposition factions fighting the jihadist group," the political think tank International Crisis Group stated in a report on the area last week.

About 900 US troops are in Syria, ostensibly as part of the international coalition fighting the extremist group known as the "Islamic State," or IS. The IS group took control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014 but was considered to be largely defeated by 2019.

More recently, observers have said there have been hardly any operations against the IS group. But the border area in this part of northern Syria is a puzzle of competing domestic and international interests, including those of Turkey, Russia, Iran and the US, alongside various Syrian and Syrian-Kurdish actors.

This is why US troops are still there. Al-Tanf is also used to "disrupt the activities of Iranian proxies in Syria … it also serves as leverage in the long-running negotiations over the country's future," analysts at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy argued recently.

American soldiers also support what they call partner organizations in the area, including the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Syrian-Kurdish group that controls large parts of northeastern Syria.

Jordan: Tricky balancing act

The suicide drone attack this weekend hit what is known as Tower 22, a logistics support base around 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away from the al-Tanf base, crewed by around 350 US troops who are also supposedly there to combat the IS group.

Tower 22 is actually in Jordan, although the Jordanian government appears to have tried to downplay this fact in news reports.

Jordan's royal family has been critical of the way the Israeli military offensive in Gaza is being conducted, and Jordanian citizens have voiced opposition to Israel's role in the Palestinian conflict. The country's government and royal family must balance this with long-term cooperation and contact with the US and Israel.

There are currently around 3,000 US troops in Jordan at the invitation of the Jordanian government. In particular, the US military has helped to fund and set up Jordan's border security. The US military regularly makes use of Jordanian air bases. But for example, the Jordanians have denied that US weapons for Israel are being transported over their borders.

Iraq: Against IS group?

During and after the US invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, US troop numbers peaked at about 150,000. But over the last two decades that number has been reduced to around 2,500. These troops are also there as part of the international coalition fighting the extremist IS group.

"If we're really honest, the debate [about US presence] has moved on from the anti-IS mission," Sajad Jiyad, a fellow at the Century Foundation, recently told DW. "Iraqis probably have enough capabilities to stop [the IS group] from relaunching a large insurgency."

But there are other benefits to their presence, Jiyad noted, like training, reconnaissance, aerial support and intelligence sharing. In Iraq too, the US sees itself as a counterweight to growing Iranian influence in the country.

But this is also why attacks against US troops have been happening in Iraq for years: Iran-backed militias, who now also play a significant political role, are opposed to the US presence and have found many reasons to attack American bases there with rockets and drones.

The Gaza conflict offers them more excuses. In the around two years starting in January 2021, there were about 60 attacks on US troops. Since mid-October in 2023, there have been closer to 160 in just four months. Iraq has recently initiated talks about whether remaining US soldiers, who are there at the invitation of the government to fight the IS group, will be asked to leave permanently.

Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait: Ally of small Gulf states

By far, the largest US troop deployments are in smaller Gulf states. Altogether Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain host more than 30,000 American military personnel. All three countries are designated "major non-NATO allies."

As the result of a military partnership that has grown since the late 1980s, Kuwait now has the fourth-largest US troop presence in the world. Even though Kuwait is small, "the country is strategically significant because of its key geographical location in the northeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula and astride the Europe-Asia air corridor," the Washington-based Middle East Institute explained in a 2022 report.

Kuwait itself is often neutral in regional disputes and depends on the US presence for its own defense. Unlike many other US allies in the region, it doesn't charge the Americans for use of its land.

In Qatar, the al-Udeid Air Base hosts around 10,000 US personnel. It was the headquarters for US operations in Afghanistan and then the country's 2021 withdrawal from the country. Qatar and the US have had a military relationship since the early 1990s, and in early January extended their agreement on the air base for another 10 years. Observers have suggested the deal was not announced with any great fanfare because of sensitivities around the Gaza conflict.

Finally, the Americans' largest naval base in the Middle East is located in Bahrain, home to the US' 5th Fleet and over 9,000 military personnel.

Bahrain was the first nation in the Middle East to host a major US military base and "strategically, Bahrain is the central node of the international maritime presence securing the world's most important choke points," Atlantic Council analysts explained in late 2023, after Bahrain signed a new strategic cooperation agreement with the US.