President Joe Biden vowed ‘we shall respond’ to a suicide drone strike that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan late on Saturday night.
During a campaign stop at a church in Columbia, South Carolina, Biden held a moment of silence for those fallen and promised retaliation.
‘We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls,’ he told those gathered for his visit on Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) demanded Biden act swiftly and decisively to counterstrike against Iran after the suicide drone strike sparked widespread outrage.
The Pentagon confirmed that the Saturday strike resulted in three soldiers’ deaths and injured another 34. The top suspect remains Iran and its proxies.
‘I am calling on the Biden Administration to strike targets of significance inside Iran, not only as reprisal for the killing of our forces, but as deterrence against future aggression,’ the South Carolina senator wrote in a statement. ‘The only thing the Iranian regime understands is force. Until they pay a price with their infrastructure and their personnel, the attacks on U.S. troops will continue.’
Graham urged Biden: ‘Hit Iran now. Hit them hard.’
President Joe Biden told campaign stop attendees at a church in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday that the U.S. ‘shall respond’ to the Iranian drone strike in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops
The drone attack impacted a U.S. outpost located in the northeast part of the country known as Tower 42, near the Syria border, and resulted in at least 34 other injuries
The drone attacks late Saturday were carried out on a base in the northeast part of Jordan, near the Syria border and is thought to be carried out by Iran, which is the main backer of Hezbollah.
The suicide strike comes as conflict in the wartorn region continues to escalate, with the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza still ongoing, and Iran currently exchanging airstrikes with U.S. ally Pakistan.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul also blamed the Biden administration for being too weak on Iran and facilitating a foreign policy environment where they thought they could get away with it.
‘Iran’s proxies have launched over 150 attacks on US troops since October, as the Iran-backed Houthis attack global shipping, and Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas attack our ally Israel,’ McCaul wrote. ‘The Biden administration’s failed Middle East policy has destroyed our deterrence against adversaries in the Middle East.’
‘We need a major reset of our Middle East policy to protect our national security interests and restore deterrence.’
Former President Donald Trump also released a statement on the tragedy.
‘The drone attack on a U.S. Military Installation in Jordan, killing 3 American Servicemembers, and wounding many more, marks a horrible day for America,’ Trump said. ‘My most profound sympathies go to the Families of the Brave Servicemembers we have lost.’
‘This brazen attack on the United States is yet another horrific and tragic consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender,’ he alleged, claiming Biden’s policies have brought the U.S. to ‘the brink of World War 3.’
‘This terrible day is yet more proof that we need an immediate return to PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, so that there will be no more chaos, no more destruction, and no more loss of precious American lives. Our Country cannot survive with Joe Biden as Commander in Chief,’ Trump wrote.
Sen. Lindsey Graham demanded Biden: ‘Hit Iran now. Hit them hard’
Biden held a moment of silence at the Columbia church on Sunday, January 28 in memory of the three troops who died. ‘We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls,’ the president said
Three American soldiers have been killed in suicide drone strike on a US base in Jordan, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday. Pictured: Marines talk to their comrades on the ground during military maneuvers in the Middle Eastern Country, which borders Syria and Iraq
President Biden on Sunday issued a statement mourning the loss of the slain service members – the latest casualty as the unrest in the Middle East persists.
‘Today, America’s heart is heavy,’ Biden wrote, before confirming the strike on the small U.S. outpost known as Tower 42 had been successful.
‘Last night, three U.S. service members were killed – and many wounded – during an unmanned aerial drone attack on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan near the Syria border,’ Biden’s statement notes. ‘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.’
He added how the three fallen soldiers ’embodied the very best of our nation’ and declared they died ‘risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism.’
‘It is a fight we will not cease,’ Biden, 81, proclaimed.
While not identifying the militants responsible, the statement confirmed the strike was the work of anti-Western jihadists operating somewhere in the region.
Both countries, as of Sunday, boast a bevy of Iran-aligned militias, including Hezbollah and several other Shia militant groups.
As of Sunday morning, Iran – the main backer of anti-Israel group Hezbollah – and its proxies are the main suspects, officials said. Pictured: US Marines monitor Eager Lion multinational military maneuvers in Quweira, a city in Jordan located closer to Israel
An outspoken enemy of both the US and Israel, Iran currently trains the Hezbollah militia group (seen here in Baghdad in 2019), which for years has sought to join the Palestinian cause. The group has not been named as responsible for Saturday’s attack
Since the Syrian War in 2011, Iran has also backed multiple Palestinian terror groups based in Gaza, and various terrorist groups in Bahrain and elsewhere across the Middle East.
Since the war – which served to intensify Iranian economic, political, and religious operations in the country – Iran has openly used its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to fund these terrorist organizations.
In 2019, the nuclear-capable country acknowledged the involvement of the IRGC-QF in the Iraq and Syria conflicts, spurring the US to designate the Iranian army as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Iran has also been known regional militant and proxy groups to achieve deniability in such strikes, as well as shield it from accountability for its destabilizing policies.
The country is also currently embroiled in an artillery-laden game of chicken with its own neighbor in Pakistan, which is one of NATO’s main allies in the Middle East.
The country is also currently embroiled in an artillery-laden game of chicken with its own neighbor Pakistan, which is one of NATO’s main allies in the Middle East. Pictured: Smoke billowing over the Iranian city Saravan last Thursday
Both countries, as of Sunday, boast a bevy of Iran-aligned militias, including Hezbollah and several other Shia militant groups including the Houthi, seen here as Yemenis recently militarily trained by the movement hold their guns and chant slogans in an armed popular parade before heading to Israel in the Gaza Strip to fight on December 2
Just last week, Pakistan’s air force launched retaliatory airstrikes on two alleged militant positions in Iran, days after an Iranian airstrike killed two children in their own country.
The air attacks in Sistan and Baluchestan province killed at least seven – and added to tensions already present between the two nations and the region as a whole.
They also added to a death toll in the Middle East that is well into the thousands since the conflict in Gaza broke out in October.
A few weeks ago, Pakistan recalled its ambassador to Tehran because of Tuesday’s strikes by Iran inside Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province. Iran claimed it targeted bases for a militant Sunni separatist group.
It drew strong condemnation from Pakistan, which denounced the attack as a ‘blatant violation’ of its airspace and said it killed two children.
If Marhamati’s account of the casualties is correct, the country duplicated Pakistan’s minor-killing offense at least two fold.
As Iranians continue to assess the full scope of the attack, the war more than a thousand miles west in Israel continues to rage.
Another 1,000 miles southwest, four fresh strikes were carried out by the US on Yemen, targeting anti-ship ballistic missiles used by another rebel group backed by Iran, the Houthi.
Earlier in the month, shortly after Iran’s attack on Pakistani soil, the group warned that British and American ships in the Red Sea have now become ‘legitimate targets’, given the state of the greater conflict
The Houthis have since targeted ships in the region sporadically, with the attacks ramping up recently.
Another 1,000 miles southwest, four fresh strikes were carried out by the US on Yemen , targeting anti-ship ballistic missiles used by the Houthis, another group backed by Iran that is against US involvement in the region
Two weeks ago, shortly after Iran’s attack on Pakistani soil (seen here), the Iran-backed group warned that British and American ships in the Red Sea have now become ‘legitimate targets’, following joint strikes against military sites run by another group backed by Iran, the Houthis
The string of incidents have fueled concerns about the danger of the Israeli offensive sparking a wider conflict and a simultaneous rise in gas prices, as it is also one of the most important routes for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments in the Middle East
In response, the US launched Operation Prosperity Guardian – an international coalition to safeguard the region, with many other countries, including Spain and the UK, taking part.
A reported 1,200 commercial ships have passed through the sea since the operation was launched on December, with none hit by drone or missile strikes until the first phase of the Sunday strike, when militants attacked the Hangzhou with several missiles.
US Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper on Friday had already warned that even with the taskforce, the Houthis do not seem set on ending their ‘reckless’ attacks, after targeting more than 100 ships in the Red Sea since November.
The Sunday attack shows the group’s continued resolve to support Hamas, which Israel recently pledged to continue to try to eradicate.
The incidents have fueled concerns about the danger of the Israeli offensive sparking a wider conflict and a simultaneous rise in gas prices, as it is also one of the most important routes for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments in the Middle East.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Navy for comment.
Meanwhile, on Sunday the official representative of the Jordanian Cabinet of Ministers denied that the Saturday strike occurred in the country at all, saying it instead happened at a well-known US military base at Tanf in Syria, not on Jordanian territory.
The US has yet to confirm those claims, but has issued statements citing American intelligence that indicate otherwise.
The military branches the soldiers belonged to, as of Sunday, have yet to be specified.