The president of the United States, Joe Biden, reported this Sunday that three American soldiers have died in a drone attack against his troops in northeastern Jordan, near the border with Syria. The pro-Iran militia group Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know that it was carried out by radical Iranian-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” Biden added in a statement. The aggression could represent a turning point in the region by increasing the risk of war escalation with the involvement of the US. The US Army has added in a statement that at least 25 soldiers have been injured and, according to statements by a member of the US government to the Reuters agency, up to 34 people have been evacuated “due to possible brain injuries.”
Iranian militias claim it
The Al Nujaba militia, one of the most prominent of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, has celebrated in a statement several attacks that the group has launched against US positions, including one directed against the Al Tanf base “which caused death and injuries to more than 50 American soldiers.” “This operation is a small introduction to the hell of the Islamic Resistance’s operations in Iraq,” the militia threatened in the note.
This is the first time that the United States has suffered fatal casualties in the region since the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip began, which now totals more than 26,000 deaths, in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7. That attack left more than 1,200 Israelis dead and 240 people kidnapped.
From Jordan they assure that the attack took place in Syria
Although the US has located the attack in Jordanian territory, a spokesman for the kingdom of Jordan assures that it took place on the other side of the border, in Syria, according to the Associated Press. Jordan shares a border with Israel, the West Bank, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and has the presence of US troops in its territory.
The Minister of Government Communications and official Government spokesperson, Muhannad Moubaideen, has indicated that the attack did not take place within the country. Mubaideen explained that the attack targeted the Al-Tanf base in Syria, on the border with Jordan and Iraq.
President Biden added that the US will continue its commitment to the fight against terrorism and that it will “ensure that all those responsible are held accountable at a time and in a manner of our choosing.” In recent weeks, the US Army has responded with bombings against enclaves of Yemen’s Houthi rebels to their drone attacks against US vessels in the Red Sea.
The US, Israel’s main ally in its offensive on the Gaza Strip, also bombed several infrastructures of Kataib Hezbollah – representative of the Hezbollah militia in Iraq – as well as other groups backed by Iran in Iraq last week. The Pentagon then called these strikes a “necessary and proportionate” action in “direct response to the escalating series of attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militias.”
These offensives targeted Kataib Hezbollah headquarters and rocket and missile storage sites, among others. The bombings also came just one day after the US issued sanctions against three leaders and supporters of the militia and against the Fly Baghdad airline for its support of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and related groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Source: www.eldiario.es
