The Pentagon on Monday identified the dead soldiers as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Spec Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Spec. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia. The three were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, an Army Reserve unit based at Fort Moore, Georgia.
The drone attack on the outpost in northeastern Jordan near the border with Syria and Iraq, called Tower 22, escalated hostilities in the region that have been rising since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza.
A military investigation is underway to find out exactly what went wrong. Pentagon officials said early Sunday that the base’s air defenses were functioning properly. The weather didn’t matter.
One theory that military officials are investigating is that the militants studied patterns of U.S. drone flights and deliberately positioned their attack drone near the returning American drone to make it harder to detect. Militia planners could have used Google Earth images of the base to guide the explosives-laden drone to the center of a mass target such as living quarters.
Mr. Biden has vowed retaliation and met with his top national security advisers for the second straight day on Monday to discuss possible targets in Syria, Iraq and Iran. Senior U.S. officials said a direct attack on Iran was less likely, although the U.S. military has drawn up plans to attack Iranian military advisers and trainers in Iraq and Syria if U.S. troops are killed by Iran-backed militias in the Middle East .
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, on his first day at the Pentagon since undergoing surgery for prostate cancer last month, condemned the attacks and vowed retaliation.
“Let me begin with my outrage and sadness over the deaths of three brave US soldiers in Jordan and the other troops wounded,” Austin said before meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “The President and I will not tolerate attacks on U.S. forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States and our troops.”
The drone strike in Jordan showed that Iran-backed militias – be they in Iran or Syria or the Houthis in Yemen – remain in power despite U.S. military efforts to weaken them and prevent them from sliding into a larger conflict capable of inflicting serious consequences on American troops. possibly with Iran itself.
American troops in Iraq and Syria and now Jordan have been attacked at least 165 times since October – 66 times in Iraq, 98 times in Syria and Sunday’s attack in Jordan, the Pentagon said Monday. More than 80 soldiers suffered injuries, including brain trauma, before the final volley.
“We know that Iran supports these groups,” John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Monday. “We know they provide them with resources, we know they train them. We know that these attacks certainly do not discourage them.”
But Mr Kirby added: “The extent to which they command and direct is something intelligence analysts will be paying attention to.”
Mr. Kirby and Ms. Singh were repeatedly pressed during briefings with reporters on Monday about when and how the United States would respond, and declined to comment on specific options. They stressed that the government wanted to prevent a major war in the region, although they blamed the attack for escalating tensions.
“We are not seeking war with Iran,” Kirby said. “But the attacks must stop.”
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Monday that he would not “telegraph” a possible U.S. response, but that such actions “could be multilevel, phased, and sustained over time.”
Mr Blinken added: “This is an incredibly volatile time in the Middle East. I would argue that we have not experienced a situation in the region as dangerous as the one we are facing now since at least 1973 and probably even before.”
Iran on Monday denied any connection to the attack and accused Washington of stoking tensions in the region.
About 350 Army and Air Force soldiers are stationed at the Tower 22 border outpost. It serves as a logistics and supply center for the nearby Al Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, where American troops work with local Syrian partners to combat remnants of the Islamic State.
The disposable attack drone struck near the outpost’s living quarters, causing injuries ranging from minor cuts to brain injuries, a U.S. military official said. Eight U.S. soldiers were flown to Iraq for medical treatment, and three of them were expected to be flown to Germany for more advanced treatment, Ms. Singh said.
The soldiers and airmen lived in container housing, Ms. Singh said, essentially aluminum boxes slightly larger than a commercial shipping container. They have linoleum floors and cots or beds inside and can be easily transported on trucks.
“What’s special about this attack is where it landed,” Ms. Singh said. “It was pretty early in the morning, so people were actually in their beds when the drone hit.”
Michael Crowley contributed reporting.
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2024-01-30 03:51:03
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