The White House announced on Sunday that three U.S. service members had been killed in Jordan in a drone attack.
Three U.S. service members were killed in Jordan on Sunday and at least 34 others were injured in what the Biden administration said was a drone attack from an Iran-backed militia, the first known American military fatalities from hostile fire in the turmoil spilling over from Israel’s war with Hamas.
The attack happened at a remote logistics outpost in northeast Jordan called Tower 22 where the borders of Syria, Iraq and Jordan converge. The one-way attack drone hit near the outpost’s living quarters, causing injuries that ranged from minor cuts to brain trauma, a U.S. military official said.
But the deaths of U.S. service members, most of whom were military reservists, will almost certainly increase pressure on President Biden to retaliate more forcefully as strife grows in the Middle East after the Oct. 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel.
“Three U.S. service members were killed — and many wounded — during an unmanned aerial drone attack on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan near the Syria border,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on Sunday. “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.”
Speaking later in Columbia, S.C., Mr. Biden said, “We lost three brave souls.” The president then led a moment of silence, before adding, “We shall respond.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III also held Iran-backed militias responsible for the continued attacks against U.S. troops in the region, but he did not identify which country the attack was launched from. “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,” Mr. Austin said.
The Pentagon declined to identify the service members who died or their units pending notification of family members. The military’s Central Command said in a statement that eight of the injured service members were flown to “higher-level care” outside the country, which other officials said was in Iraq. Central Command said it expected the number of injured to “fluctuate” as additional service members sought treatment.
In a statement, the Iran-backed militias who call themselves the Axis of Resistance claimed responsibility for the attack on the base in a remote desert area of Jordan, saying it was a “continuation of our approach to resisting the American 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 that accusations that Iran had ordered the strike 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, have traded 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 the Gulf of Aden, calling it a retaliation for the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The United States and its allies have fired back, striking inside Yemen at least 10 times.
