Three American troops have been killed and 25 were injured in an attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday.
The casualties were caused by a drone attack at Tower 22 in Jordan near the border with Syria, CENTCOM said.
CENTCOM did not comment on why air defenses failed to intercept the drone, which appears to be the first known attack on Tower 22 since attacks on U.S. and coalition forces began following Hamas's Oct. 7 slaughter of 1,200 Israelis.
U.S. forces at the outpost are there as part of an advise-and-assist mission with Jordan.
The Biden Administration said that the attack was carried out by "radical Iran-backed militant groups."
Republicans blasted Team Biden.
“Joe Biden emboldened Iran for years by tolerating attacks on our troops, bribing the ayatollahs with billions of dollars, and appeasing them to no end. He left our troops as sitting ducks and now three are dead and dozens wounded, sadly as I’ve predicted would happen for months,” Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said in a statement.
Iran and its proxies have carried out more than 150 attacks on U.S. interests in the Middle East since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. This is the first time U.S. soldiers have been killed in a strike after the Hamas attack.
"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," Joe Biden said in a statement.
Last month, the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Iran-affiliated groups after three U.S. service members were injured, one critically, in a drone attack on a base in northern Iraq.
Earlier in January, one retaliatory U.S. strike in Baghdad killed a militia leader accused of being behind attacks on U.S. personnel.
U.S. and coalition troops are also stationed in the Red Sea after the Iran-backed Houthis began attacking commercial ships in the region. The Yemen-based group says it is targeting vessels in the region in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is fighting Hamas.
CENTCOM has previously insisted "these unlawful actions have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza."
It was only a matter of a time before Biden’s appeasement strategy towards Iran got American service-members killed.
Tragic and preventable. https://t.co/kDw7C1dPtZ — Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 28, 2024
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