A drone assault on a Jordanian facility killed three American soldiers, with President Joe Biden blaming Iran-backed extremists for the first US military deaths in the region since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.
Iran denied any involvement in the incident and refuted US and British allegations that it supported militant groups responsible for the strike on the isolated frontier base in Jordan’s northeast, near the frontiers with Iraq and Syria.
“While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” Biden said in a statement. He also pledged to hold “all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing” .
Biden subsequently took a moment of silence at a South Carolina church banquet hall in honor of the US troops slain in the attack, saying, “We shall respond.”
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron followed Biden in accusing “Iran-aligned militia” and urging Tehran to “de-escalate the region”.
Iran denied any involvement in the incident, with foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani calling the claims as “baseless” and a “projection”.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not welcome the expansion of conflict in the region,” said Kanani in a statement, adding that Tehran “is not involved in the decisions of the resistance groups”.
With the region already tense because to hostilities in Gaza, the strike raises concerns about a bigger battle involving Tehran.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the strike, but the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said on Sunday that it launched three drone attacks on Syrian sites, including one near the Jordanian border.
The group, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US assistance for Israel in the Gaza conflict and want them out of Iraq, has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks on US and anti-jihadist coalition forces in Iraq.
‘Regional explosion’
Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Iran-backed Hamas, said the Jordan strike was “a message to the American administration”.
“The continuation of the American-Zionist aggression on Gaza risks a regional explosion,” stated Abu Zuhri, a Palestinian politician.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced late on Sunday that the attack had targeted the remote Tower 22 logistics support site and that 34 troops had been injured, eight of whom required evacuation.
According to CENTCOM, there are around 350 US Army and Air Force soldiers at the site who work in support of the international coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.
Jordan’s government spokesman, Muhannad Mubaidin, condemned the incident, as did Bahrain, Egypt, and Iraq.
The Iraqi government called for a “end to the cycle of violence” in the region.
The increasing Middle East violence presents a dilemma for Biden in an election year.
Republican politicians, notably his predecessor Donald Trump, were quick to blame Biden for the tragic attack, describing the situation as a “consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender”.
According to the Pentagon, US and ally soldiers in Iraq and Syria have been targeted in over 150 attacks since mid-October, prompting Washington to launch retaliatory strikes.
In response to these attacks, the US has occasionally launched airstrikes on pro-Iran terrorists.
The latest round of the Israel-Hamas confrontation began on October 7 when the Palestinian militant group launched an unprecedented onslaught, killing around 1,140 people, the majority of whom were civilians, according to an AFP tally of official numbers.
Israel replied with a relentless military attack, killing at least 26,422 people in Gaza, the majority of them were women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Anger over the campaign has spread throughout the region, with violence involving Iran-backed organizations in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire almost daily in Lebanon. US troops are directly active in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
The US and the UK have both launched strikes against Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have been hitting Red Sea shipping in support of Palestinians in Gaza for more than two months.