Does a composite photo on social media accurately identify three U.S. service members who died in the January 2024 drone attack on a U.S. base in Jordan? No, that's not true: Those posts reused an old image of other American soldiers who died in a 2016 incident in Jordan. The correct names of the three service members -- two men and a woman -- killed in the January 2024 drone attack in Jordan were released by the Department of Defense on January 29, 2024.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on January 28, 2024. It opened:
The picture is of three American who were killed in a drone attack by the resistance on the American base in Syria-Jordan border.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
The post was published shortly after the January 2024 incident had been announced.
A January 28, 2024, U.S. Central Command press release (archived here) said that the attack took place "near the Syria border" and added:
As a matter of respect for the families and in accordance with DoD policy, the identities of the servicemembers will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified.
As reported by NPR (archived here), the target of the attack was Tower 22 in northeast Jordan, a base that "supports the Al-Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, where U.S. special operations have long operated in tandem with other countries in combating Islamic State militants." At least 34 other service members were wounded.
On January 29, 2024, the Department of Defense issued another press release (archived here) identifying the deceased as "three Army Reserve soldiers supporting Operation Inherent Resolve":
Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, GA.; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Ga.; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Ga., died Jan. 28, 2024, in Jordan, when a one way unmanned aerial system (OWUAS) impacted their container housing units. The incident is under investigation.
On the same day, credible media outlets, including CBS News (archived here) published the photos of the service members:
(Source: CBS News screenshot taken on Mon Jan 29 22:21:32 2024 UTC)
The people whose faces were seen in the post on X that is the focus of this fact check were also American service members who died in Jordan, but that happened years before the January 2024 incident.
The composite image reused on X appeared for the first time on November 6, 2016, in a Military.com article (archived here) citing the U.S. Army as a source of the photos.
A Pentagon press release (archived here) issued earlier on the same day in 2016 officially named the deceased soldiers:
They died Nov. 4 in Jafr, Jordan, of wounds sustained when their convoy came under fire entering a Jordanian military base. The incident is under investigation. The soldiers were assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Killed were:
Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, 27, of Lawrence, Kansas;
Staff Sgt. Kevin J. McEnroe, 30, of Tucson, Arizona; and
Staff Sgt. James F. Moriarty, 27, of Kerrville, Texas.
Another source, a database tracking deaths of service members maintained by Military Times, also says that all three men from the incorrect image on X died in 2016 (here, here and here.)
The account that shared the claim -- @sprinter99800 -- previously promoted other false narratives as reported by Lead Stories here, here, here and here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about stories taking place overseas can be found here.
