Washington, DC [US]: In a first, the White House officially pointed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of militants, as the orchestrator of the drone strike in Jordan that claimed the lives of three American service members, marking the first formal attribution for the incident, CNN reported.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, “We believe that the attack in Jordan was planned, resourced, and facilitated by an umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which contains multiple groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah.”
While not solely blaming Kata’ib Hezbollah, Kirby emphasised that the group shares responsibility for previous attacks on US bases.
“This certainly has the earmarks of the kinds of things that Kata’ib Hezbollah does,” he said, adding, “The attribution that that our intelligence community is comfortable with is that this was done by the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.”
The drone strike in Jordan on US forces was a significant incident among numerous attacks since the October 7 assault by Hamas on Israel. This marked the first time US troops have died under direct fire in the Middle East since the attack.
The fallen service members were identified as Sgt William Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Sgt Kennedy Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Sgt Breonna Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted from the rank of specialist to sergeant, according to the Army Reserve.
President Joe Biden personally spoke with the families of the three service members and is scheduled to attend their dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base on Friday.
In addition to the three fatalities, over 40 US troops sustained injuries, with three individuals transferred to a hospital in Germany for further treatment. While reported to be stable, one remains in critical condition.
Kirby outlined that the US is poised to respond to the attack, with multiple phases of a counterattack planned. He noted, “We will respond on our own time on our own schedule,” adding, “The first thing you see won’t be the last thing.”
As the US prepares for a counterstrike, intelligence efforts are monitoring the region for signs of groups rearranging resources in anticipation of the response. President Biden, while confirming that a decision has been made on how to address the strike, has remained vague on the specifics of the forthcoming response, CNN reported.
