A drone is launched during a large-scale drone combat exercise of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, in Semnan, Iran, January 6, 2021.
Wana News Agency | Via Reuters
Three US soldiers were killed and dozens wounded during a drone attack on US forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, President Joe Biden and US officials said on Sunday.
Biden blamed Iran-backed groups for the attack, the first fatal strike against US forces since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October and sent shock waves across the Middle East.
“While we are still piecing together the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iranian-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” Biden said in a statement.
At least 34 crew members were being evaluated for possible traumatic brain injury, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Two different officials said some wounded US forces were medically evacuated from the base for further treatment.
Two US officials said the drone struck near the barracks early in the morning, which could explain the high number of casualties.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hardline militants backed by Iran, claimed attacks on three bases, including one on the Jordanian-Syrian border.
The attack is a major escalation in the already tense situation in the Middle East, where war has erupted in Gaza since the October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israel that killed 1,200 people. Israel’s subsequent attack on Gaza killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry.
Since then, US forces have been attacked more than 150 times by Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria, causing at least 70 casualties before Sunday’s attack, most of them brain injuries. US warships have also been fired upon by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, who regularly attack merchant ships passing through the Red Sea waters off the coast of Yemen.
An infographic titled “Three US military members killed, dozens injured in drone attack” was created in Ankara, Turkey on January 28, 2024.
Elmurod Usubaliev Anadolu | Getty Images
While the United States has so far maintained an official line that Washington is not at war in the region, it is striking back at Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria and conducting strikes against the military capabilities of Yemen’s Houthis.
“We will continue their commitment to the fight against terrorism. And have no doubt — we will hold all those responsible accountable at the time and in the manner we choose,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House. House.
Biden put pressure on Iran
Biden’s Republican opponents seized on the attack as evidence of the Democratic president’s failure to confront Iran as his proxies strike back at US forces across the region.
“The only response to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces … Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said in a statement.
A senior official in the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, directly linked the attack to Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
“The killing of three American soldiers is a message to the American government that if the killing of innocents in Gaza does not stop, the whole nation must face it,” he told Reuters.
“Continued US-Zionist aggression in Gaza is capable of exploding the situation in the region.”
The US military said the attack took place at a base in northeastern Jordan, near the border with Syria. It does not name the base. US military activity in Jordan can be a sensitive issue, particularly at a time of heightened tension in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
A person familiar with the matter identified the American base in Jordan that was attacked as Tower 22.
A Jordanian government spokesman told state television that the militants targeted a different base, outside Jordanian territory.
There is growing concern in Jordan about the spread of the war. Late last year, Amman asked Washington to deploy Patriot air defense systems to bolster its border defenses. He called for more help to counter drones used in a raging multibillion-dollar drug war along the border with Syria, which Amman blames on pro-Iranian militias that dominate southern Syria. The kingdom has hundreds of US trainers in the country and conducts extensive exercises with US troops throughout the year.