The US strikes appeared to stop short of directly targeting Iran or senior leaders of the Revolutionary Guard Quds Force within its borders, as the US tries to prevent the conflict from escalating even further. Iran has denied it was behind the Jordan attack.
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Just Friday morning, Iran’s hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated earlier promises by Tehran to potentially retaliate for any US strikes targeting its interests. We “will not start a war, but if a country, if a cruel force wants to bully us, the Islamic Republic of Iran will give a strong response,” Raisi said.
In a statement this week, Kataib Hezbollah announced “the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government.” But Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the other major Iran-backed groups, vowed Friday to continue military operations against US troops.
The US has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the deadly attack in Jordan, but has not yet narrowed it down to a specific group. Kataeb Hezbollah is, however, a top suspect.
Some of the militias have been a threat to U.S. bases for years, but the groups intensified their assaults in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas following the October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. The war has led to the deaths of more than 27,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and has inflamed the Middle East.
Iran-backed militia groups throughout the region have used the conflict to justify striking Israeli or US interests, including threatening civilian commercial ships and US warships in the Red Sea region with drones or missiles in almost daily exchanges.
This satellite image shows a military base in Jordan where three US soldiers were killed and 40 wounded.Credit: AP
Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said “this is a dangerous moment in the Middle East.” He added, “We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people. And we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose.”
“At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past,” Austin said.
As of Tuesday, Iran-backed militia groups had launched 166 attacks on US military installations since October 18, including 67 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and now one in Jordan, according to a US military official. The last attack was January 29 at al-Asad airbase in Iraq, and there were no injuries or damage.
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The US, meanwhile, has bolstered defences at the base in Jordan that was attacked by the ran-backed militants on Sunday, according to a US official.
And the Israeli military said its Arrow defence system intercepted a missile that approached the country from the Red Sea, raising suspicion it was launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The rebels did not immediately claim responsibility.
A US official also said the military had taken additional self-defence strikes inside Yemen against Houthi military targets deemed an imminent threat. Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, said that British and American forces conducted three strikes in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah, a Houthi stronghold.
While previous US responses in Iraq and Syria have been more limited, the attack on Tower 22, as the Jordan outpost is known, and the deaths of the three service members has crossed a line, the official said.
That drone attack, which also injured more than 40 service members — largely Army National Guard — was the first to result in US combat deaths from the Iran-backed militias since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. Tower 22 houses about 350 US troops and sits near the demilitarised zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border is only 10 kilometres away.
The US Treasury announced that it imposed new sanctions on a network of firms in Iran and Hong Kong that are accused of assisting Iran procure technology to make ballistic weapons and drones. And the US hit six Iranian officials with sanctions for allegedly committing a series of malicious cyber activities against critical infrastructure in the US and other nations.
AP, Reuters
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