Expanding Middle East crisis: US blames Iran-backed militia for deaths of three soldiers in Jordan

But the deaths of US service members, most of whom were military reservists, will almost certainly increase pressure on President Biden to retaliate more forcefully as fighting intensifies 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.”

Later, in Columbia, S.C., Mr. Biden said, “We have lost three brave souls.” The president then observed a moment of silence before adding, “We will respond.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III also blamed Iranian-backed militias for continued attacks on U.S. forces in the region, but he could not identify which country launched the attack. “The President and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces, and we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests,” Austin said.

The Pentagon declined to identify the dead soldiers or their units pending notification of family members. The military's Central Command said in a statement that eight of the injured service members had been flown to “higher level of care” outside the country, which other officials said was in Iraq. The Central Command said it expected the number of wounded to “fluctuate” as more soldiers 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 area of ​​Jordan. They say it is a “continuation of our approach to resisting US occupation forces in Iraq and the region.”

A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanaani, said at a news conference on Monday that the militias “do not take orders” from Iran and act independently to oppose “any aggression and occupation.” He said allegations that Iran ordered the attack were “baseless” and blamed Israel and the United States for fueling instability in the region.

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, striking at least a dozen times in Yemen.

And on Jan. 20, at least four U.S. service members stationed in western Iraq were injured when their air base came under heavy missile and rocket fire from what U.S. officials said were Iranian-backed militias. It was the latest in at least 164 attacks by Iranian-backed militias against US forces in Syria, Iraq and Jordan since the October 7 attacks.

Until Sunday's deadly attack, senior government officials said only luck could have spared the United States from more serious casualties. A drone packed with explosives landed on a barracks at the Erbil air base in Iraq on October 25. It turned out to be a dud, but several soldiers would likely have been injured or killed if the drone had exploded, a senior military official said. .

The drone strike in Jordan on Sunday showed that Iran-backed militias – whether in Iran or Syria, or the Houthis in Yemen – remained able to inflict serious consequences on US forces, despite the efforts of the US military to weaken them and prevent them from getting involved in a wider battle. conflict, possibly with Iran itself.

“We do not want to go down a path of greater escalation that leads to a much broader conflict within the region,” Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday.

When asked in a pre-recorded session on ABC News' “This Week” whether he thought Iran wanted war with the United States, General Brown, echoing U.S. intelligence assessments, said, “No, I don't think so.” '

In his statement, Mr Biden called the fallen US troops “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 stand in the fight against terrorism. It is a fight that we will not stop.”

On 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.

The naval commandos were the first known U.S. fatalities in Washington's campaign against the Houthis, who have launched dozens of attacks on ships in the Red Sea from territory they control in the country's north since November, roiling the global shipping industry brought.

The Americans killed on Sunday were the first known fatalities from enemy fire in the region since Hamas' attacks on October 7.

About 350 army and air force personnel are deployed at the Tower 22 border post. It serves as a logistics and supply center for the nearby Al Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, where U.S. forces are working with local Syrian partners to combat the remnants of the Islamic State . The United States also has about 2,000 troops stationed at an air base in Azraq, Jordan, as well as Special Operations troops and military trainers.

“By targeting Jordanian territory, Iran could exacerbate a new US relationship in the region,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute in Washington.

The Jordanian government issued a statement condemning the attack, saying the Americans were “cooperating with Jordan in countering terrorism and securing the border.”

It was unclear Sunday why air defenses at the outpost failed to intercept the drone, which appeared to be the first known attack on the site since attacks on U.S. forces began shortly after the Oct. 7 raid, according to former military commanders.

In 2016, the US military turned Al Tanf into a small base. It is on the strategic Baghdad-Damascus highway – a crucial link for forces supported by Syria's ally Iran in a corridor running from the Iranian capital Tehran, through Iraq and Syria to southern Lebanon.

The Rukban refugee camp, with around 8,000 inhabitants, is close to both Al Tanf and Tower 22.

Troops at Al Tanf have previously come under fire from Iranian-backed militias. The Defense Ministry said last fall that 21 troops had suffered minor injuries but had returned to duty after the Oct. 17 and 18 attacks on the Al Asad air base in western Iraq and the Al Tanf garrison.

Republicans in Congress who have criticized Biden's dealings with Iran and its allies seized on Sunday's attack to demand the administration take stronger action.

“We must respond to these repeated attacks by Iran and its allies by striking directly against Iranian targets and its leaders,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee. “The Biden administration's responses so far have only led to more attacks.”