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Three U.S. service members had been killed in Jordan on Sunday and no less than 34 others had been injured in what the Biden administration mentioned was a drone assault from an Iran-backed militia, the primary identified American army fatalities from hostile fireplace within the turmoil spilling over from Israel’s battle with Hamas.
The assault occurred at a distant logistics outpost in northeast Jordan known as Tower 22 the place the borders of Syria, Iraq and Jordan converge. The one-way assault drone hit close to the outpost’s residing quarters, inflicting accidents that ranged from minor cuts to mind trauma, a U.S. army official mentioned.
However the deaths of U.S. service members, most of whom had been army reservists, will virtually definitely enhance stress on President Biden to retaliate extra forcefully as strife grows within the Center East after the Oct. 7 assaults that killed 1,200 folks in Israel.
“Three U.S. service members had been killed — and lots of wounded — throughout an unmanned aerial drone assault on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan close to the Syria border,” Mr. Biden mentioned in a press release on Sunday. “Whereas we’re nonetheless gathering the information of this assault, we all know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant teams working in Syria and Iraq.”
Talking later in Columbia, S.C., Mr. Biden mentioned, “We misplaced three courageous souls.” The president then led a second of silence, earlier than including, “We will reply.”
Protection Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III additionally held Iran-backed militias answerable for the continued assaults in opposition to U.S. troops within the area, however he didn’t determine which nation the assault was launched from. “The president and I can’t tolerate assaults on American forces, and we are going to take all crucial actions to defend the US, our troops and our pursuits,” Mr. Austin mentioned.
The Pentagon declined to determine the service members who died or their items pending notification of members of the family. The army’s Central Command mentioned in a press release that eight of the injured service members had been flown to “higher-level care” outdoors the nation, which different officers mentioned was in Iraq. Central Command mentioned it anticipated the variety of injured to “fluctuate” as extra service members sought remedy.
In a press release, the Iran-backed militias who name themselves the Axis of Resistance claimed duty for the assault on the bottom in a distant desert space of Jordan, saying it was a “continuation of our strategy to resisting the American occupation forces in Iraq and the area.”
A spokesman for Iran’s International Ministry, Nasser Kanaani, mentioned at a information convention on Monday that the militias “don’t take orders” from Iran and act independently to oppose “any aggression and occupation.” He mentioned that accusations that Iran had ordered the strike had been “baseless,” and blamed Israel and the US for fueling instability within the area.
The drone strike got here as Israel and Hezbollah, one other Iranian ally, have traded fireplace throughout the Lebanese border. A Houthi militia in Yemen, additionally backed by Iran, has fired missiles and drones at business ships within the Purple Sea and the Gulf of Aden, calling it a retaliation for the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The US and its allies have fired again, placing inside Yemen no less than 10 instances.
And on Jan. 20, no less than 4 U.S. service members stationed in western Iraq had been injured when their air base got here beneath heavy rocket and missile fireplace from what American officers mentioned had been Iran-backed militias. It was the most recent in no less than 164 strikes by Iran-backed militias in opposition to U.S. troops in Syria, Iraq and Jordan because the Oct. 7 assaults.
Till Sunday’s lethal assault, senior administration officers mentioned that solely luck had spared the US from extra severe casualties. One drone full of explosives landed on a barracks on the Erbil air base in Iraq on Oct. 25. It turned out to be a dud, however a number of service members would almost certainly have been injured or killed had it exploded, a senior army official mentioned.
The drone strike in Jordan on Sunday demonstrated that the Iran-backed militias — whether or not in Iran or Syria, or the Houthis in Yemen — remained able to inflicting severe penalties on American troops regardless of the U.S. army’s efforts to weaken them and keep away from tumbling right into a wider battle, probably with Iran itself.
“We don’t wish to go down a path of better escalation that drives to a much wider battle inside the area,” Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, mentioned on Sunday.
Requested in a prerecorded session on ABC Information’s “This Week” whether or not he thought Iran needed battle with the US, Basic Brown, echoing assessments from the U.S. intelligence businesses, mentioned, “No, I don’t assume so.”
In his assertion, Mr. Biden known as the fallen U.S. troops “patriots within the highest sense,” and mentioned they had been “risking their very own security for the security of their fellow Individuals, and our allies and companions with whom we stand within the battle in opposition to terrorism. It’s a battle we is not going to stop.”
Final Sunday, the Pentagon declared two members of the Navy SEALs lifeless after they disappeared 10 days earlier throughout an operation at sea to intercept weapons from Iran headed to Houthi fighters.
The Navy commandos had been the primary identified U.S. fatalities in Washington’s marketing campaign in opposition to the Houthis, who from territory they management within the nation’s north have launched dozens of assaults on ships within the Purple Sea since November, roiling the worldwide delivery business.
The Individuals killed on Sunday had been the primary identified fatalities from hostile fireplace within the area because the Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas.
About 350 Military and Air Drive personnel are deployed to the Tower 22 border outpost. It serves as a logistics and resupply hub for the Al Tanf garrison close by in southeastern Syria, the place American troops work with native Syrian companions to battle remnants of the Islamic State. The US additionally has about 2,000 troops stationed at an air base in Azraq, Jordan, in addition to Particular Operations forces and army trainers.
“By focusing on Jordanian soil, Iran will get to exacerbate one other U.S. relationship within the area,” mentioned Charles Lister of the Center East Institute in Washington.
The Jordanian authorities in a press release condemned the assault and mentioned the Individuals had been “cooperating with Jordan in countering terrorism and securing the border.”
It was unclear on Sunday why air defenses on the outpost did not intercept the drone, which former army commanders mentioned seemed to be the primary identified assault on the situation since assaults on U.S. forces started quickly after the Oct. 7 incursion.
In 2016, the American army turned Al Tanf right into a small base. It’s on the strategic Baghdad-Damascus freeway — an important hyperlink for forces backed by Syria’s ally Iran in a hall that runs from the Iranian capital, Tehran, via Iraq and Syria to southern Lebanon.
The Rukban refugee camp, with some 8,000 residents, is close to each Al Tanf and Tower 22.
Troops at Al Tanf have come beneath fireplace earlier than from Iran-backed militias. The Protection Division mentioned final fall that 21 troops had suffered minor accidents however returned to obligation after the assaults on Oct. 17 and 18 at Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq and the Al Tanf garrison.
Congressional Republicans who’ve criticized Mr. Biden’s coping with Iran and its proxies seized on Sunday’s assault to demand that the administration take extra forceful motion.
“We should reply to those repeated assaults by Iran and its proxies by placing straight in opposition to Iranian targets and its management,” mentioned Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the highest Republican on the Armed Providers Committee. “The Biden administration’s responses so far have solely invited extra assaults.”
Reporting was contributed by Alissa J. Rubin from New York, Zolan Kanno-Youngs from Charlotte, N.C., Peter Baker and Julian E. Barnes from Washington and Rana Sweis from Amman, Jordan.
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