Biden: US will ‘hold all those responsible’ for military deaths in Jordan strike to account

Three U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday night in a drone strike in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border, Joe Biden confirmed Sunday in a statement released by the White House, in which the U.S. president promised that the action will not go unanswered. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella term for various armed factions supported by Tehran, claimed responsibility for the strike, in which at least 25 military personnel were also wounded. Jordanian Minister of Government Communications Muhannad Al Mubaidin told state television that the drones hit a base located outside its borders. These are the first fatal casualties from enemy fire among the U.S. military since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. The attack raises the risk of Washington’s involvement in the conflict. The White House supports Israel diplomatically, militarily, and economically and acts against other allies of Tehran, such as the Houthis in Yemen, but it does not want to become embroiled in a regional war.

“Today, America’s heart is heavy,” the U.S. president said in a statement. “The three American service members we lost were patriots in the highest sense. And their ultimate sacrifice will never be forgotten by our nation. Together, we will keep the sacred obligation we bear to their families. We will strive to be worthy of their honor and valor. We will carry on their commitment to fight terrorism. And have no doubt — we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing.”

It is unclear what went wrong with the air defenses at the Tower 22 base, which the U.S. maintains on Jordan’s border with Syria and Iraq, but they failed to intercept the drones. As of last Friday, the Pentagon had recorded over 158 strikes against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria. That “constant barrage of drones, rockets and missiles” had so far proven unsuccessful, not even inflicting damage to infrastructure.

The incident increases tension concerning a possible escalation in the region, something the Pentagon has been trying to avoid for weeks. With 10 months before the U.S. presidential elections, a crisis of this sort could prove fatal to Biden’s aspirations. Analysts agree that his unalloyed support for Israel has the capacity to sway the Democratic vote, especially among young people and Muslim voters, who contributed to his triumph in 2020 and are influential in decisive states such as Michigan or Pennsylvania.

Families receiving coffins

The identities of the three deceased U.S. soldiers were not immediately revealed. The images of their families receiving the coffins is also not something desirable for Biden, as it may serve to refresh the memory among Americans of long and unsuccessful military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the former, 2,455 members of the U.S. military lost their lives. In the latter, some 4,400, according to Defense Department figures.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed it had launched four simultaneous drone strikes in solidarity with the “brothers in Gaza.” Three of these targeted U.S. forces at the Syrian bases of Shadadi, Al-Tanf, and Rukban, and the fourth a naval base in “the occupied Palestinian territories,” a reference to Israel, which has not reported any attacks and is likely to be a reference to the U.S. Tower 22 base.

“The killing of three American soldiers is a message to the U.S. administration that unless the killing of innocents in Gaza stops, it must confront the entire nation,” a senior spokesman for Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters. “The continued American-Zionist aggression on Gaza is capable of exploding the situation in the region.”

This weekend’s attack comes on top of skirmishes on the Lebanese border between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, as well as missile and drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels, to which the United States and the United Kingdom responded. Last week, at least four U.S. servicemen were injured in a barrage of rockets and missiles at a base in western Iraq. Washington has some 2,000 troops deployed at Jordan’s Azraq air base, tasked with fighting the remnants of Islamic State in the area.

Jordan, an ally of Washington that borders Israel, the West Bank, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia places great value on stability and is eager to avoid any involvement in the Gaza war. Half of the country’s population is Palestinian.

At the end of last year, when Israel was already bombing Gaza and pro-Iranian militias in the Middle East were launching shells and drones against the Jewish State and U.S. troops in neighboring countries, Jordan asked Washington to deploy Patriot missile defense systems on its border with Syria, where troops from both countries are carrying out joint maneuvers. The dividing line is key to regional stability and to the trafficking of fenethylline, a drug that ends up mainly in Saudi Arabia. The Jordanian army has even bombed Syrian territory in an attempt to stop its production and accuses the regime of Bashar Al Assad of having created a narco-state to finance itself and from which armed groups linked to Iran also benefit.

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