Three US service members were killed Sunday in Jordan and at least 34 others were wounded in a drone attack by an Iranian-backed militia, the first known US military deaths by enemy fire in the unrest that spread from Israel. war with Hamas.
The attack took place at a remote logistics outpost in northeastern Jordan called Tower 22, where the borders of Syria, Iraq and Jordan converge. The one-way attack drone crashed near the outpost’s residences, causing injuries ranging from minor injuries to brain trauma, a US military official said.
But the deaths of members of the U.S. military, most of whom were reservists, will almost certainly increase pressure on President Biden to retaliate more forcefully as tensions grow in the Middle East following the Oct. 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel.
“Three members of the US military were killed – and many wounded – during a drone strike against our forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border,” Mr Biden said in a statement on Sunday. “While we are still piecing together the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iranian-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”
Speaking later in Columbia, SC, Mr. Biden said: “We lost three brave souls.” The president then observed a minute’s silence before adding: “We will respond.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III also held Iranian-backed militias responsible for ongoing attacks against US troops in the region, but did not specify which country launched the attack. “The president and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces and will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops and our interests,” Mr. Austin said.
The Pentagon declined to identify the service members who died or their units pending notification of family members. The military’s Central Command said in a statement that eight of the wounded servicemen were taken to “high-level care” outside the country, which other officials said was in Iraq. Central Command said it expected the number of injured to “fluctuate” as additional service members sought treatment.
In a statement, Iran-backed militias calling themselves the Axis of Resistance claimed responsibility for the attack on the base in a remote desert region of Jordan, saying it was a “continuation of our approach to resisting the US occupation forces in Iraq and the area.”
A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Nasser Kanani, told a press conference on Monday that the militias “do not take orders” from Iran and act independently to oppose “any aggression and occupation”. He said accusations that Iran ordered the strike were “baseless” and accused Israel and the United States of fueling instability in the region.
The drone strike comes as Israel and Hezbollah, another Iranian ally, exchange fire along the Lebanese border. A Houthi militia in Yemen, also backed by Iran, fired missiles and drones at merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in what it called retaliation for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The United States and its allies have retaliated, striking inside Yemen at least 10 times.
And on Jan. 20, at least four members of the U.S. military stationed in western Iraq were injured when their airbase came under heavy rocket and missile fire from what U.S. officials said was an Iranian-backed militia. It was the latest in at least 164 strikes by Iranian-backed militias against US troops in Syria, Iraq and Jordan since the October 7 attacks.
Until Sunday’s deadly attack, senior administration officials said only luck had spared the United States from more serious casualties. An explosives-laden drone landed in a barracks at Erbil Air Base in Iraq on October 25. It turned out to be a dud, but many members of the military would likely have been injured or killed if it had exploded, a senior military official said.
Sunday’s drone strike in Jordan showed that Iranian-backed militias—whether in Iran, Syria, or the Houthis in Yemen—remained capable of inflicting serious damage on US troops despite the US military’s efforts to weaken them. and avoid falling into a wider conflict, possibly with Iran itself.
“We don’t want to go down a path of greater escalation that leads to a much broader conflict within the region,” Gen. Charles K. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday.
Asked in a taped session on ABC News’ “This Week” if he believed Iran wanted war with the United States, Gen. Brown, echoing U.S. intelligence assessments, said: “No, I don’t think so.”
In his statement, Mr. Biden called the fallen American soldiers “patriots in the highest sense” and said they “risked 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’s a fight we won’t stop.”
Last Sunday, the Pentagon declared dead two Navy SEALs who went missing 10 days earlier during an operation at sea to intercept weapons from Iran to Houthi militants.
The Navy cruisers were the first known US deaths in Washington’s campaign against the Houthis, who from territory they control in the north of the country have launched dozens of attacks on ships in the Red Sea since November, upsetting the global shipping industry.
The Americans killed Sunday were the first known deaths by enemy fire in the area since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
About 350 Army and Air Force personnel are deployed to the Tower 22 border outpost. It serves as a logistics and supply hub for the Al Tanf outpost near southeastern Syria, where U.S. troops are working with local Syrian partners to fight remnants of Islamic State. States. The United States also has about 2,000 troops stationed at an air base in Azraq, Jordan, as well as Special Operations forces and military trainers.
“By targeting Jordanian soil, Iran could strain another US relationship in the region,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute in Washington.
The Jordanian government in a statement condemned the attack and said the Americans were “working with Jordan to counter terrorism and secure the border.”
It was unclear Sunday why air defenses at the outpost failed to intercept the drone, which former military commanders said appeared to be the first known attack on the site since attacks on US forces began soon after the October 7 invasion.
In 2016, the US military turned Al Tanf into a small base. It lies on the strategic Baghdad-Damascus highway — a vital link for forces backed by Syria’s ally Iran in a corridor that runs from the Iranian capital, Tehran, through Iraq and Syria to southern Lebanon.
The Rukban refugee camp, with about 8,000 residents, is located both near Al Tanf and Tower 22.
Troops in Al Tanf have come under fire in the past from Iranian-backed militias. The Defense Ministry said last fall that 21 soldiers had been lightly wounded but had returned to duty after the Oct. 17 and 18 attacks on Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq and the Al Tanf garrison.
Congressional Republicans who have criticized Mr. Biden’s handling of Iran and its proxies seized on Sunday’s attack to demand that the administration take stronger action.
“We must respond to these repeated attacks by Iran and its proxies by striking directly at Iranian targets and its leadership,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee. “The Biden administration’s responses so far have only provoked more attacks.”
The report was made by Alyssa J. Rubin from New York, Zolan Kanno-Youngs from Charlotte, NC, Peter Baker and Julian E. Barnes from Washington and Rana Sweis from Amman, Jordan.
