Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abul-Ragheb confirmed that several hundred American soldiers are being deployed in Jordan to help operate newly delivered anti-missile batteries in anticipation of a war.
"These Patriot anti-missile defense systems are to be manned by American troops with the help of the Jordanian armed forces," he told Al-Arabiya News Channel, a satellite station based in the United Arab Emirates. "There will be a presence of American troops in defensive air bases and for this purpose only," Abul-Ragheb said in the first public Jordanian acknowledgment of the highly sensitive presence of U.S. troops.
"We are talking about a few hundred on the American side, but there will not be any large U.S. force in Jordan and this has no relation to any military campaign against Iraq," he added.
