Biden slams ‘Iran-backed militant’ for deadly drone strike in Jordan

A drone attack on a military base in Jordan has killed three American troops, with President Joe Biden blaming Iran-backed militants for the first US military deaths in the region since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.

Iran said it had nothing to do with the attack and denied US and British accusations that it supported militant groups responsible for the strike on the remote frontier base in Jordan’s northeast, near the borders with Iraq and Syria.

Biden said: “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 pledged to hold “all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing”.

Biden later held a moment of silence at a South Carolina church banquet hall for the US troops killed in the attack, vowing, “We shall respond.”

Persecondnews reports that US National Security Council spokesperson disclosed in an interview on Monday, that the White House is not seeking a war with Iran or regional escalation.

He said: “We are not looking for a war with Iran. We are not looking to escalate the conflict in the region, obviously, these attacks keep coming.

“We will keep looking at the options, I can not speak for the Supreme Leader or what he wants or he doesn’t want. I can tell you what we want. What we want is a stable, secure, prosperous Middle East, and we want these attacks to stop.”

There has so far been no claim of responsibility for the strike but British Foreign Secretary David Cameron reiterated a call for Iran “to de-escalate in the region”.

He also condemned the attack “by Iran-aligned militia groups” in a post on in his official X handle.

Despite pressure from the West, Iran has denied involvement in the attack that unalive three US soldiers.

Iranian representatives at the United Nations told the official IRNA news agency Tehran had nothing to do with the attack. A foreign ministry spokesman also rejected the US and British accusations.

“These claims are made with specific political goals to reverse the realities of the region,” Iran foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani was quoted as saying.