WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Three U.S. service members had been killed and dozens wounded throughout an unmanned aerial drone assault on U.S. forces stationed in northeastern Jordan close to the Syrian border, President Joe Biden and U.S. officers mentioned on Sunday.
Biden blamed Iran-backed teams for the assault, the primary lethal strike in opposition to U.S. forces since the Israel-Hamas struggle erupted in October, sending shock waves all through the Middle East.
“While we’re nonetheless gathering the details of this assault, we all know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant teams working in Syria and Iraq,” Biden mentioned in a press release.
At least 34 personnel had been being evaluated for doable traumatic mind harm, a U.S. official instructed Reuters, talking on situation of anonymity. Two totally different officers mentioned some wounded U.S. forces had been medically evacuated from the bottom for additional remedy.
A fourth official mentioned the drone struck close to the barracks, which, if confirmed, might clarify the excessive variety of casualties.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hardline Iran-backed militant teams, claimed assaults on three bases, together with one on the Jordan-Syria border.
The assault is a serious escalation of the already tense state of affairs within the Middle East, the place struggle broke out in Gaza after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ assault on Israel on Oct. 7 which killed 1,200. Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 26,000 Palestinians, in accordance with the native well being ministry.
While the United States has to date maintained an official line that Washington shouldn’t be at struggle within the area, it has made strikes in opposition to targets of Yemen’s Houthi teams which have been attacking industrial vessels within the Red Sea.
“We will stick with it their dedication to battle terrorism. And have little doubt – we are going to maintain all these accountable to account at a time and in a way of our selecting,” Biden mentioned in his assertion launched by the White House.
Republican opponents of Biden seized on the assault as proof of the Democratic president’s failure to confront Iran as its proxies strike in opposition to U.S. forces throughout the area.
“The solely reply to those assaults should be devastating navy retaliation in opposition to Iran’s terrorist forces … Anything much less will affirm Joe Biden as a coward,” mentioned Republican Senator Tom Cotton in a press release.
A senior official with the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, straight tied the assault to Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza.
“The killing of three American troopers is a message to the U.S. administration that except the killing of innocents in Gaza stops, it should confront your entire nation,” he instructed Reuters.
“The continued American-Zionist aggression on Gaza is able to exploding the state of affairs within the area.”
The U.S. navy mentioned the assault occurred at a base in northeastern Jordan, close to the Syrian border. It didn’t title the bottom. U.S. navy exercise in Jordan generally is a delicate problem, notably at a time of heightened tensions of the Israel-Hamas battle.
A Jordanian authorities spokesman instructed state TV that the militants focused a special base, outdoors Jordanian territory.
Washington has given Jordan round $1 billion to bolster border safety since Syria’s civil struggle started in 2011, and has lately despatched extra navy support to that finish, Western intelligence sources say.
It is unclear which Iran-backed group might have carried out the assault however a number of U.S. officers mentioned they didn’t consider that Iranian navy forces themselves launched the one-way assault drone.
“While we’re nonetheless gathering details, that is most assuredly the work of an Iranian-backed militia group,” one other U.S. official mentioned.