‘We shall respond’, says Biden after 3 US troops killed in northeast Jordan
Joe Biden vowed on Sunday to respond after a drone attack blamed on Iranian proxy groups killed three American service members and injured dozens more in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border.
“We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls,” Biden said during a Sunday lunch event at the Brookland Baptist Banquet Center.
“We shall respond,” the president added after holding a moment of silence for the soldiers killed.
US Central Command confirmed that three service members were killed and at least 34 others were injured in the suicide drone attack but said the military expects the total number of injured ‘to fluctuate as service members continue to seek follow-on care’.
Eight of those who were injured needed to be evacuated out of Jordan to receive additional medical care but ‘are in stable condition’.
The command identified the location of the attack as a facility in northeastern Jordan known as Tower 22 of the Jordanian Defence Network. Roughly 350 troops are stationed there. Jordanian officials previously said the attack was not on their soil but in a border area in Syria outside of the control of the Assad regime.
Multiple reports said Tower 22 serves as a logistic hub for Al
Tanf Garrison, which is located across the border in Syria.
The fatalities are the first amid months of attacks by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and
Syria that began following Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip in October.
The Pentagon declined to provide an exact location for the attack but said that ‘additional information will be provided as it becomes available’.
Multiple reports citing anonymous sources said the attack hit a military installation called Tower 22 inside Jordan across the border from the Al Tanf Garrison in Syria.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said neither he nor Biden will ‘tolerate attacks on American forces, and we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests’.
Biden has vowed to ‘hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing’.
Iraqi group claims responsibility
Meanwhile, an Iraqi resistance group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The group, called Islamic Resistance, stated that it launched an attack on the ‘Ash Shaddadi and Rukban bases in Syria, as well as the Zvulon naval facility in occupied Palestine, in response to the massacres committed by the Zionist entity (Israel) against our people in Gaza’.
The group added that it will continue its attacks on the ‘strongholds of the enemies’.
Iran refutes involvements
Iran’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, refuted the claims of Tehran’s involvement in the attack, and said resistance groups decide and work on their own principles and priorities as well as the interests of their country and people, Iran’s state news agency, IRNA reported.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, warned that the statements and non-constructive actions of some Western officials are threatening regional and international peace and stability
“As we have clearly stated before, the resistance groups in the region are responding the war crimes and genocide of the child-killing Zionist regime and that they do not take orders from the Islamic Republic of Iran. These groups decide and act based on their own principles and priorities as well as the interests of their country and people,” he underlined.
Additionally, Iranian Minister Kanaani advised the West to condemn the crimes of the occupying Israeli regime and work to facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza rather than making baseless accusations against Iran, IRNA reported.
This comes as Kannai lashed out at British Foreign Secretary David Cameron for his antiTehran rhetoric and unfounded claims.
Kanaani has called baseless the UK accusation that Iran has been involved in operations by resistance groups in the region.
“These claims are made with specific political goals to reverse the realities of the region and also indicate that they are influenced by third parties, including the child-killing Zionist regime,” Kanaani noted.
Cameron has posted on X, in which, he condemned the drone attack but reiterated that Iran is involved in operations of resistance forces.
“We still urge Iran to reduce tensions in the region”, Cameron added in his post.
US Central Command confirmed that three service members were killed and at least 34 others were injured in the suicide drone attack