© Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at South Carolina’s First within the Nation Dinner on the State Fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S., January 27, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Picture
By Phil Stewart, Steve Holland and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Three U.S. service members had been killed and dozens could also be wounded after an unmanned aerial drone assault on U.S. forces stationed in northeastern Jordan close to the Syrian border, President Joe Biden and U.S. officers stated on Sunday.
Biden blamed Iran-backed teams for the assault, the primary lethal strike towards U.S. forces because the Israel-Hamas warfare erupted in October and despatched shock waves all through the Center East.
“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,” Biden stated in a press release.
“Have little question – we’ll maintain all these accountable to account at a time and in a fashion of our selecting,” he stated.
Biden later requested for a second of silence for the three killed service members throughout a marketing campaign occasion in South Carolina, including, “We will reply.”
U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin echoed that risk. He and different senior officers briefed Biden earlier within the day on the assault.
At the very least 34 personnel had been evaluated for doable traumatic mind harm, a U.S. official advised Reuters, talking on situation of anonymity. Two totally different officers stated some wounded U.S. forces had been medically evacuated from the bottom for additional therapy. One of many officers stated a small variety of these injured the place in essential however secure situation.
Two U.S. officers stated the drone struck close to the barracks early within the morning, which might clarify the excessive variety of casualties.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hardline Iran-backed militant teams, claimed assaults on three bases, together with one on the Jordan-Syria border.
The assault is a serious escalation of the already tense scenario within the Center East, the place warfare broke out in Gaza after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ assault on Israel on Oct. 7 which killed 1,200. Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 26,000 Palestinians, in keeping with the native well being ministry.
Since then, U.S. forces have come beneath assault greater than 150 occasions by Iran-backed teams in Iraq and Syria, inflicting not less than 70 casualties previous to Sunday’s assault, most of them traumatic mind accidents. U.S. warships have additionally been fired at by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, who’re usually attacking business ships passing by Crimson Sea waters off Yemen’s coast.
Whereas the US has to date maintained an official line that Washington just isn’t at warfare within the area, it has been retaliating towards the Iran-backed teams in Iraq and Syria and finishing up strikes towards Yemen’s Houthi navy capabilities.
BIDEN PRESSURED ON IRAN
Republican opponents of Biden seized on the assault as proof of the Democratic president’s failure to confront Iran as its proxies strike towards U.S. forces throughout the area.
“The one reply to those assaults should be devastating navy retaliation towards Iran’s terrorist forces … Something much less will verify Joe Biden as a coward,” stated Republican Senator Tom Cotton in a press release.
U.S. Senate Republican Chief Mitch McConnell stated Biden’s inaction was emboldening enemies of the US within the Center East.
“The time to begin taking this aggression significantly was lengthy earlier than extra courageous People misplaced their lives,” McConnell stated.
A senior official with the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, straight tied the assault to Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza.
“The killing of three American troopers is a message to the U.S. administration that until the killing of innocents in Gaza stops, it should confront the whole nation,” he advised Reuters.
“The continued American-Zionist aggression on Gaza is able to exploding the scenario within the area.”
The U.S. navy stated the assault occurred at a base in northeastern Jordan, close to the Syrian border. It didn’t title the bottom, however an individual accustomed to the matter recognized it as Tower 22 in Jordan.
U.S. navy exercise in Jordan could be a delicate concern, notably at a time of heightened tensions as a result of Israel-Hamas battle, due to growing concern in Jordan in regards to the warfare spreading.
The Jordanian authorities stated solely that the assault occurred at an “superior put up” alongside its border with Syria.
Late final 12 months, Amman requested Washington to deploy Patriot air protection methods to bolster its border protection.
It has requested extra help to deal with drones utilized in a raging multibillion-dollar drug warfare alongside the border with Syria, which Amman blames on pro-Iranian militias who maintain sway in southern Syria.
The dominion has a whole lot of U.S. trainers within the nation and holds intensive workouts with U.S. troops all year long.