Three US soldiers killed in drone strike in Jordan

Three US service members were killed and 25 others injured in Jordan on Sunday in what the Biden administration said was a drone strike by an Iran-backed militia, the first US military fatalities from hostile fire in the aftermath of Israel's war in Gaza.

The attack took place at a base in northeastern Jordan, near the border with Syria, where the troops were stationed. Other details were not immediately available from the Pentagon's Central Command, which issued an initial bald statement on Sunday.

But the deaths of US service members will almost certainly put more pressure on President Biden to respond more forcefully as unrest grows in the Middle East following the October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel.

“Three American service members were killed — and many were injured — during an unmanned aerial drone strike on our troops stationed in northeastern Jordan, near the border with Syria,” Biden said in a statement on Sunday. “While we are still gathering the facts about this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iranian-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”

The drone strike came as Israel and Hezbollah, another Iranian ally, exchanged fire across the Lebanese border. A Houthi militia in Yemen, also backed by Iran, has fired missiles and drones at commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, calling it retaliation for Israel's bombardment of Gaza. The United States and its allies have fired back and struck several times in Yemen.

And last Saturday, at least four U.S. service members stationed in western Iraq were injured when their air base came under heavy rocket and missile fire from what U.S. officials said were Iranian-backed militias. It was the latest in more than 150 attacks by Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq against US forces there since the October 7 attacks.

The United States has approximately 2,000 troops stationed at an air base in Azraq, Jordan, as well as Special Operations troops, military trainers and support personnel for the U.S. base in Al Tanf, Syria. U.S. troops are there largely to help with regional efforts to root out the remnants of Islamic State.

In his statement, Mr. Biden called U.S. troops in Jordan “patriots in the highest sense” and said they “risked their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and of our allies and partners with whom we are in battle . against terrorism. It is a fight that we will not stop.”

Last Sunday, the Pentagon declared two Navy SEALs dead after they disappeared 10 days earlier during an operation at sea to intercept weapons from Iran bound for Houthi fighters.

They were the first known US fatalities in Washington's campaign against the Houthis, who have launched dozens of attacks on ships in the Red Sea since November, sending the global shipping industry into turmoil.

The Americans killed Sunday were the first known fatalities from enemy fire in Yemen, Iraq or surrounding areas and waters.