Three US Army soldiers were killed and over 30 service personnel were injured in a weekend drone attack on a small US outpost in Jordan, near the country’s Syrian border, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM).
This is the first instance of American troops being killed by enemy fire in the region since the onset of the Gaza war.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq – an umbrella group for Shia militias – has claimed responsibility for the attack.
President Joe Biden has pledged to hold those responsible for the attack to account, attributing it to “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”
30 January 2024
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The US lost three of its service members in a drone strike in Jordan because President Joe Biden “was scared of his own shadow,” Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told CNBC on Monday.
She stressed that the US leader has failed to prevent dozens of strikes in the region, arguing that he needed to “punch back hard” against Iran-linked groups. Tehran has denied any involvement in the attacks.
Haley also stated that the US should be “going after every ounce of production of those missiles,” while targeting training sites and leaders who have orchestrated the attacks.
The situation in the Middle East is currently more tense than ever in the past four decades, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“I would argue that we have not seen a situation as dangerous as the one we’re facing now across the region since at least 1973. And arguably, even before that,” Blinken said on Monday, referring to the two-week-long Yom Kippur War. “I think it’s very important to note that this is an incredibly volatile time in the Middle East.”
Qatar has expressed concerns that US retaliation for the deadly drone strike in Jordan may derail the ongoing efforts to negotiate a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
“I hope that nothing would undermine the efforts that we are doing or jeopardize the process,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al Thani said on Monday.
US President Joe Biden deployed CIA Director William Burns to try and broker the prisoner-swap deal with high-level diplomatic and intelligence officials from Israel, Egypt, and Qatar, although it remains unclear what exactly Burns discussed with Sheikh Mohammed and other officials in Paris on Sunday.
Washington’s reprisal for the drone attack in Jordan “is likely to be more powerful than previous American retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria,” anonymous officials told CNN, adding that the Pentagon and the White House “are being careful not to telegraph the administration’s plans.”
“We’re not taking anything off the table,” an unnamed US defense source told CNN.
Facing a growing pressure from both critics and allies, President Biden has ordered his advisers to “present a range of US response options that would forcefully deter other attacks [against American troops] while also not further inflaming a smoldering region,” Politico reported, citing two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
Tehran has once again denied any involvement in the deadly drone strike against American troops in Jordan, as well as other attacks on US personnel and facilities in the region, according to a letter by Iran’s permanent representative to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran categorically rejects these unfounded allegations,” Iravani wrote, adding that “there is no group affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces, whether in Iraq, Syria, or elsewhere, that operates directly or indirectly under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran or acts on its behalf.”
“Therefore, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not responsible for the actions of any individual or group within the region,” the diplomat emphasized.
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US President Joe Biden has vowed to hold all those responsible for the deadly strike on American troops to account “at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) following a national security briefing earlier in the day.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has voiced his “outrage and sorrow” over the deaths and injuries of American servicemembers, promising to take action to prevent such incidents.
“The President and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops,” he said on Monday.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has offered “deepest condolences for the US troops killed and wounded in Jordan” as he accused Tehran of “destabilizing the region” following a drone attack by an alleged Iranian-backed group on an American military outpost.
“This demonstrates once again, the risk that servicemen are exposed to when they stand up for our values and take part in missions and operations where we protect freedom and the values we all believe in. Iran continues to destabilize the region. This includes backing terrorists who attack our ships in the Red Sea and the US is leading international efforts to end these attacks,” the bloc’s chief said during a meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday.
US national security advisor John Kirby has neither confirmed nor denied reports that the drone that killed three American troops was misidentified as an American UAV, saying he will let the Pentagon “talk about the forensics.”
“I’m sure that they are already picking it apart and trying to figure out how this happened,” Kirby said.
The number of American troops injured in the drone strike on US forces on Jordan has risen to 40 people, the Pentagon announced on Monday. The Department of Defense also identified all three soldiers killed in the Sunday attack as army reservists from the US state of Georgia: Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah.
Washington will respond “decisively” to any aggression, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated, adding that the US administration is simultaneously taking “steps to defend ourselves as well as to prevent escalation.”
“The president has been crystal clear: We will respond decisively to any aggression, and we will hold responsible the people who attacked our troops at a time and a place of our choosing,” Blinken said on Monday during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The drone that struck the US’ military base in Jordan allegedly approached the base’s living quarters “very low and very slow” at the same time an American drone was returning to the facility following a mission, allowing it to circumvent the air defense system that normally protects the base, a defense official told CBS News. As a result, there was little to no warning for those stationed on the base. The White House believes a single drone was used in the attack.
The drone strike that killed three American soldiers in Jordan was not just predictable but “an inevitable conclusion” of stationing US troops at “vulnerable” locations across the Middle East, Republican congressional candidate and Iraq War veteran Joe Kent told Tucker Carlson Uncensored.
“We left them there as bait to be killed by Iranians at the time and place of their choosing so that we can continue to escalate towards a war with Iran,” Kent explained. He pointed out that US troops in the region had already been attacked at least 150 times since Israel declared war in Gaza on October 7, prior to Sunday’s strike.
The politician urged the government to resist the temptation to wage an Iraq-style “shock and awe” campaign in Iran. He warned that such a war would result in catastrophic military and financial losses with no perceivable gain for the average American.
The White House is controlled by “pro-Iranian activists” and should be “designated as an Iranian proxy,” radio host and political commentator Steve Gill told RT, blaming the presidential administration of Joe Biden for the attack that killed three US troops in Jordan.
“They’re the ones that are exacerbating the situation in the Middle East through their feckless leadership,” he said. Gill added that the Biden administration was responsible for the outbreak of conflict “hot spots” from Ukraine to Gaza immediately before suggesting a regional “escalation” involving targeting Iran’s energy infrastructure.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre offered Washington’s condolences to “the families who lost three, three brave, three brave of our, three folks who were military folks who were always fighting, who were fighting on behalf of this administration and the American people more importantly” during a press briefing, apparently referring to the soldiers killed in Sunday’s airstrike.
The garbled clip has been widely mocked on social media.
The US effectively provoked the airstrike on its Jordanian base with increased attacks on troops allied with the “axis of resistance” in Syria and Iraq in the preceding days, Foad Izadi, a professor of political communications at the University of Tehran, told RT. One such US strike killed an Iraqi military commander.
Attempts to reframe these militias as “Iran-backed” do not change their essential nature, he said. “What the US is trying to do is link these organizations to Iran, hiding the fact that there is a lot of discontent in both Iraq and Syria against American occupation.”
Iran was not responsible for Sunday’s drone strike, the country’s Minister of Information Esmail Khatib told state news outlet IRNA during the IRGC Intelligence Martyrs’ Conference, clarifying that the Iraqi resistance group that took credit for the attack was acting independently and would continue to act as it deemed necessary against the “aggressive presence” of the US.
His statement was not the first by Tehran to distance itself from the attack. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has repeatedly told reporters that Tehran is “not involved in the decision making of resistance groups” regarding how they seek to “defend Palestinians or their own countries.”
Despite the Islamic Resistance in Iraq promptly stepping forward to claim responsibility, the US presidential administration of Joe Biden has framed the culprits as “radical Iranian-backed militant groups.”
Washington is unlikely to follow through on threats made against Iran in the aftermath of the drone strike, given the looming 2024 US elections, journalist and political commentator Stephen Sahounie told RT. “Of course they’re going to do a military attack, but they’re not going to do a military attack on Iran,” he said, predicting the US would instead hit back with “small airstrikes” in Yemen, Iraq, or Syria.
At the same time, Israel has threatened to trigger “a full-range war in the region” by starting a military operation in south Lebanon while purporting to make peace in Gaza, Sahounie warned.
Washington has no interest in a direct conflict with Tehran and does not wish to enter another war in the Middle East, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby has insisted. “We are not looking for a war with Iran, we are not looking to escalate the conflict in the region,” Kirby told the Today Show.
He noted, however, that President Joe Biden is currently considering what actions the US may take in response to the attack on its troops in Jordan. There is “a range of options to look at,” Kirby said, stating that Washington wants a “stable, secure, prosperous Middle East and we want these attacks to stop.”
Baghdad has condemned the drone strike on US troops, with Iraqi government spokesperson Bassem al-Awadi calling for an “end to the cycle of violence” in the Middle East.
He also stated that Iraqi authorities were willing to collaborate on establishing “fundamental rule to prevent further repercussions in the region and curb the escalation of conflict.”
Democratic Representative Seth Moulton has slammed calls for a direct conflict with Tehran over the attack on US troops in Jordan, calling instead for a “strategic response on our terms and our timeline.”
After Republican senators such as Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn proposed a US strike on Iran, accusing it of being behind the attack, Moulton described the lawmakers in a post on X as “chicken hawks calling for war.” It’s unlikely that these politicians would send their own children to fight in the Middle East, he added.
“Deterrence is hard; war is worse,” Moulton said.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has stated that the UK “absolutely condemns” the drone strike carried out against US service members in Jordan.
He also expressed concern about rising tensions in the Middle East and urged Iran to “de-escalate,” despite Tehran officially denying any involvement in the attack.
“We stand resolutely with our allies to bring stability and peace to the region and that’s what we continue to work towards,” Sunak added.
US Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin has urged negotiators to speed up efforts to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas following the deadly drone attack on American troops in Jordan. She blamed the strike on Tehran, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that Iran is “waging war – endangering international shipping, launching terror attacks on Israel through Lebanon and Gaza, and now taking American lives.”
Slotkin, who used to be a CIA analyst, stressed that “this loss and the growing instability across the Middle East, make it even more clear why those negotiating a new pause in the fighting in Gaza and the return of the hostages must work with urgency.”
Houthi militants in Yemen claim to have fired a rocket at a US warship. In a statement shared to the press, the Shiite group, alleged to have ties to Iran, said it had targeted the US warship Lewis B Puller as it sailed through the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
Neither the US Navy nor Central Command have commented on the Houthi claims, making it unclear if the warship was actually attacked or if any damage or casualties were sustained.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has blasted US senators who are calling for military action against Iran in response to the attack on American troops in Jordan on Sunday.
“F***ing lunatics,” Carlson wrote on his official X account, citing statements made by Republican senators Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn.
Iran has denied any involvement in the attack on a US outpost. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that armed groups in Iraq “do not take orders” from Tehran.
A source familiar with the US position told Bloomberg that the strike in Jordan would “force a stronger response than what the US has done so far” since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October.
According to Bloomberg, one possible option is carrying out a covert attack on Iran without claiming responsibility for it. Another option is the targeted assassination of Iranian officials, similar to how in 2020 a US drone strike in Iraq killed General Qassem Soleimani.
The number of injured US personnel has grown to at least 34, US Central Command (CENTCOM) revealed in a recent update. Eight soldiers were evacuated from Jordan and remain in stable condition.
The military expects the overall number of wounded “to fluctuate as service members continue to seek follow-on care.”
Around 350 US Army and Air Force service members are stationed at the base that got hit earlier, CENTCOM said.
More US politicians saw the death of soldiers in Jordan as a sign of President Joe Biden’s weakness.
“Two months ago I warned that if Biden didn’t impose direct consequences on Iran these attacks would spread beyond Syria & Iraq & kill Americans,” Senator Marco Rubio wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Senator Rick Scott wrote on X that “Iran is blatantly questioning US strength & resolve.” He accused Biden of “appeasement” of Tehran.
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The Islamic Resistance in Iraq – an umbrella group for Shia militias – promised more “escalations” if the US continues to support Israel.
“All the US interests in the region are legitimate targets and we don’t care about US threats to respond,” the group’s senior official told the Washington Post.
Pentagon officials are drawing up possible responses to the drone strike “as we speak,” an unnamed US official told Politico. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier vowed to respond “at a time and place of our choosing” to the attack, which he attributed to “Iran-backed militias.”
The government of Jordan condemned what it described as the “terrorist attack” on its border with Syria, adding that it was working with the US to secure the area. Its first official statement to media since the incident appeared to walk back the earlier claim from a government spokesperson that the attack had struck a US base in Syria – adjacent, but not over, that nation’s border with Jordan.
Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, and John Cornyn called for the US to bomb Iran in response to the deaths, which they framed as the inevitable outcome of the presidential administration of Joe Biden being too soft on the Islamic Republic.
“I’ve long since lost confidence in the Biden national security team to deter Iran,” Graham told media. “If they do not change their policies now, more American service members in the region will pay the price. Hit Iran now. Hit them hard.”
“The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East,” Cotton agreed, arguing, “Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief.”
“Target Tehran,” Cornyn wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
In response to the killing of three American service members in the drone attack on the US military installation in Jordan, former president Donald Trump expressed condolences to the families of the deceased and called it a horrible day for America. On Truth Social, he attributed the attack to what he perceives as Joe Biden’s "weakness and surrender," citing the impact of the current president’s policies on Iran. Trump asserted that such attacks would not have occurred under his presidency, emphasizing the need for an immediate return to a peace-through-strength approach. He also linked the incident to other geopolitical events and criticized Biden’s role as Commander in Chief.
“While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement on Sunday.
“The three American service members we lost were patriots in the highest sense,” he said. “And their ultimate sacrifice will never be forgotten by our nation.”
The US president added: “We will carry their commitment to fight terrorism. And have no doubt – we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing.”
Three US Army soldiers have been killed and many others wounded by an overnight drone attack in Jordan, President Joe Biden has announced. The strike on a US army outpost represents a significant escalation of simmering tensions in the Middle East.
A press release issued by US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Sunday listed the number of American personnel injured in the attack at 25.
“Last night, three US service members were killed – and many wounded – during an unmanned aerial drone attack on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House on Sunday. “While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”