3 US troops killed and dozens wounded in Jordan, White House says, as Biden vows reprisal

“Have no doubt – we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” he said.

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Tuk-tuk campaign in Bangkok calls for release of Gaza hostages

Tuk-tuk campaign in Bangkok calls for release of Gaza hostages

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin echoed that threat. He and other senior officials briefed Biden earlier in the day on the attack.

At least 34 staff were being evaluated for possible traumatic brain injury, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Two different officials said some wounded US forces were medically evacuated from the base for further treatment.

Two US officials said the drone struck near the barracks early in the morning, which could explain the high number of casualties.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hardline Iran-backed militant groups, claimed attacks on three bases, including one on the Jordan-Syria border.

Jordan said on Sunday the attack did not take place on its territory as Washington reported, but at an army base in Syria near the border.

Government spokesman Muhannad Mubaidin said the “attack that targeted the American forces did not happen in Jordan … It targeted Al-Tanf base in Syria”, where US forces are deployed as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

Since then, US forces have come under attack more than 150 times by Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria, causing at least 70 casualties before Sunday’s attack, most of them traumatic brain injuries. US warships have also been fired at by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, who are regularly attacking commercial ships passing through Red Sea waters off Yemen’s coast.

While the United States has so far maintained an official line that Washington is not at war in the region, it has been retaliating against the Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria and carrying out strikes against Yemen’s Houthi military capabilities.

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Republican opponents of Biden seized on the attack as evidence of the Democratic president’s failure to confront Iran as its proxies strike against US forces across the region.

“The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces … Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward,” said Republican Senator Tom Cotton in a statement.

US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Biden’s inaction was emboldening enemies of the United States in the Middle East.

“The time to start taking this aggression seriously was long before more brave Americans lost their lives,” McConnell said.

A senior official with the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, directly tied the attack to Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

“The killing of three American soldiers is a message to the US administration that unless the killing of innocents in Gaza stops, it must confront the entire nation,” he told Reuters.

“The continued American-Zionist aggression on Gaza is capable of exploding the situation in the region.”

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The US military said the took place at a base in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border. It did not name the base, but a person familiar with the matter identified it as Tower 22 in Jordan.

US military activity in Jordan can be a sensitive issue, particularly at a time of heightened tensions of the Israel-Gaza conflict, because of increasing concern in Jordan about the war spreading.

The Jordanian government said only that the attack occurred at an “advanced post” along its border with Syria.

Late last year, Amman asked Washington to deploy Patriot air defence systems to bolster its border defence. It has requested more aid to tackle drones used in a raging multibillion-dollar drug war along the border with Syria, which Amman blames on pro-Iranian militias who hold sway in southern Syria.

The kingdom has hundreds of US trainers in the country and holds extensive exercises with US troops throughout the year.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse