U.S. officials familiar with the details told The Wall Street Journal that before Iran carried out the attack in which three American soldiers were killed in July, it obtained high-resolution satellite images of the base in Jordan from Chinese sources. According to the officials, this is the clearest evidence yet that Chinese support for Iran during the war had deadly consequences for American forces. The officials did not allege direct involvement by Beijing, noting that Iran obtained the images both before and after the attack.

