Iran not behind US base attack in Jordan: American officials
Several American officials have rejected reports and speculations that Iran was behind a drone attack on a US base on the Jordan-Syria border that left three soldiers dead and over three dozen injured.
Officials have been quoted by mainstream US media as saying that they did not believe Iran carried out the drone attack on Sunday.
Reactions came as some of the critics of the administration of US President Joe Biden are in their efforts to link the drone attack on American forces in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border to Iran.
Reuters has cited some unmanned US officials as saying that Iran could not have conducted such an attack.
“Iran's support for the group allegedly behind the attack on the base does not mean that it was carried out by Iran”, one official was quoted by the CBS news channel.
Iran not behind US base attack in Jordan: American officials
CNN reported on Sunday night that the drone attack on a small American base “Tower 22” in Jordan, said it showed a significant escalation in the already unstable situation in the Middle East.
CNN also claimed that Iraq’s Islamic Resistance was responsible for the attack but neither the group nor American officials have commented on the US media assertion.
US Central Command, CENTCOM confirmed that three soldiers were killed and 25 were injured in an attack by an unmanned aerial aircraft on a base in the northeast of Jordan.
The US Defense Department has not specified who was behind that attack but Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin said: "We will respond at the right time and place", without naming any country or group.
"The president and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces, and we will take all necessary steps to defend the United States, our forces, and our interests," Austin said.
Iran not behind US base attack in Jordan: American officials
President Biden, in a statement, also deplored the killing of American soldiers in a drone attack, saying we are still gathering the facts of this attack.
"We will continue to commit [these soldiers] to the fight against terrorism and have no doubt that we will hold all those responsible [in this incident] to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing," Biden said.
Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives expressed regrets over the loss of American soldiers and extended his condolences to their families and for the other soldiers who were injured.
"America must send a clear message to the whole world that attacks on our soldiers will not be tolerated," Johnson said.
The attack comes amid growing anti-American sentiment in the region over Washington’s all-out support for the Israeli regime’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Israel has kept pounding Gaza from land, air, and sea ever since October 7, the day when the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas launched a surprise operation dubbed "Al-Aqsa Storm" against the Zionist regime over its decades of atrocities across occupied Palestine.
However, since the start of Israel’s war, each resistance group in the region has performed its duty to support the oppressed Palestinians in one or the other way.
The resistance groups have, time and again, warned the West, the US in particular, for their support for the Zionist regime’s bombing and shelling campaign in Gaza that has so far claimed nearly 26,500 lives, mostly women and children.