3 US troops were killed, and more than 30 were wounded in a drone attack overnight on a small US outpost in Jordan, US officials revealed. It marked the first time US soldiers have been killed by adversary fire in the Middle East since the start of the Gaza war. Eight of the injured were evacuated from Jordan for better care, U.S. Central Command stated in a statement on Sunday night.
The attack happened at a logistics support base in Jordan close to the border with Syria. Nearly 350 Army and Air Force personnel are residing there to keep the fight against ISIS militants. The number of wounded is anticipated to rise as service members pursue treatment for symptoms constant with traumatic brain injury, US officials stated. Which militia group is mainly responsible is still being determined.
President Biden, in a statement on Sunday, expressed the nation’s “heart is heavy” following the deadly attack, vowing that “we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also pledged retaliation in a statement. “Iran-backed militias are responsible for these continued attacks on U.S. forces, and we will respond at a time and place of our choosing,” Austin expressed.
In recent weeks, the aggression has become more cultivated and dangerous. On Jan. 20, the militants projected ballistic missiles at al-Asad air base in western Iraq. Those missiles, which hold a heavier explosive charge than rockets, induced traumatic brain injury in four U.S. troops. They later returned to duty.
The Pentagon reacted with airstrikes that targeted segments of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian government entity that prepares and equips militant groups throughout the Middle East, according to a U.S. official.
The attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Syria and the persistent targeting of commercial shipping in the Red Sea by Houthi militants seem to have a common thread of support from Iran.
One ex-senior U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence official, Javed Ali, expressed that the latest provocation by proxy forces would likely have repercussions.
“I sense that things will escalate significantly soon,” stated Ali, who previously carried positions in the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The recent attack “marks the crossing of a significant threshold in the already high level of brutality against US military personnel in the region,” Ali said.
While the Biden administration continues to comment publicly that it does not seek war in the Middle East with Iranian-backed groups in the region or with Iran itself, the Sunday episode “likely will be met with a strong and lethal response in the region,” Ali stated. “How these Iran-backed groups or Iran then retaliate remains to be seen, but a continuation or escalation of the current pace of attacks is most likely.”
The Biden administration has been criticised, mainly by Republicans, for not taking severe enough action against the Iran-backed groups for their attacks. In a statement on Sunday following the report of the three Americans killed, Sen. Lindsey Graham stated the Biden administration’s “policy of deterrence against Iran has failed miserably.”
“The Biden Administration can take out all the Iranian proxies they like, but it will not deter Iranian aggression. I am calling on the Biden Administration to strike targets of significance inside Iran, not only as reprisal for the killing of our forces but as deterrence against future aggression,” Graham expressed.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also called Sunday for a reaction“directly against Iranian targets and its leadership.” House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers expressed it is “long past time for President Biden to finally hold the terrorist Iranian regime and their extremist proxies accountable.”
Further, Last week, a bipartisan body of U.S. senators dispatched the White House a letter raising worries about the possible invocation of the 1973 War Powers Act if U.S. operations persist against the Yemen-based Houthis, another Iranian proxy group that has escalated aggressive actions against U.S. and allied forces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1jeyM0FSxM
