3 U.S. troops killed, 25 injured in drone strike by Iran-backed militia in Jordan, U.S. says
COLUMBIA, S.C.
Three American troops were killed and 25 were injured Sunday in a drone strike in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border, the U.S. military said. President Joe Biden blamed Iran-backed militias for the first U.S. fatalities after months of strikes by the groups against American forces across the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war.
With an increasing the risk of military escalation in the region, U.S. officials were working to identify conclusively the group responsible for the attack, but they have assessed that one of several Iranian-backed groups was behind it.
Biden said the United States “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing.”
Iran-backed fighters in eastern Syria began evacuating their posts, fearing U.S. airstrikes, according to Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet. He told The
Associated Press that the areas are the strongholds of Mayadeen and Boukamal.
According to a U.S. official, the number of
U.S. troops wounded in the strike by a one-way attack drone may grow. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not made public, said a large drone struck the base, which two other American officials identified as an installation in Jordan known as Tower 22. It is on the Syrian border and is used largely by troops involved in the adviseand-assist mission for Jordanian forces.
The small installation, which Jordan does not publicly disclose, includes U.S. engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops.
The U.S. military base at al-Tanf in Syria is just 12 miles north of Tower 22. The Jordanian installation is a critical logistical hub for U.S. forces in Syria, including those at al-Tanf, which is near the intersection of the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan.
Jordanian state television quoted Muhannad Mubaidin, a government spokesman, as insisting that the attack happened across the border in Syria.
U.S. troops long have used Jordan, a kingdom bordering Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and Syria, as a basing point. U.S. Central Command put the American toll at three killed and 25 injured.
Some 3,000 American troops typically are stationed in Jordan.
Since the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, Iranianbacked militias have struck American military installations in Iraq more than 60 times and in Syria more than 90 times, with a mix of drones, rockets, mortars and ballistic missiles. The attack Sunday was the first targeting American troops in Jordan during the Israel-Hamas war and the first to result in the loss of American lives. Scores of U.S. personnel have been wounded, including some who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, during the attacks.
The militias have said that their strikes are retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza and also have said they aim to push U.S. forces out of the region.
The U.S. in recent months has struck targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen to respond to attacks on American forces in the region and to deter Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from continuing to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Biden, who was in Columbia on Sunday, was briefed in the morning by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. In the afternoon, he met virtually with Vice President Kamala Harris and his national security team for an update.
The president called it a “despicable and wholly unjust attack” and said the service members were “risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism. It is a fight we will not cease.”
Syria is still in the midst of a civil war and long has been a launch pad for Iranian-backed forces there, including the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Iraq has multiple Iranianbacked Shiite militias operating there as well.
Jordan, a staunch Western ally and a crucial power in Jerusalem for its oversight of Islamic holy sites there, is suspected of launching airstrikes in Syria to disrupt drug smuggling, including one that killed nine people this month.
An umbrella group for Iran-backed factions known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq earlier claimed that it launched attacks with explosive drones targeting three areas in Syria, as well as one inside of “occupied Palestine.”
The group has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the IsraelHamas war began.
Three officials with Iran-backed militias in Iraq, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with journalists, said the drone attack against the base in Jordan was launched by one of the Iraqi groups.
No faction has yet officially claimed responsibility.