Iran is claiming it had nothing to do with an attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan that killed three U.S. servicemembers on Sunday, and warned that more U.S. strikes on Syria and Iraq will only add to instability in the region, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Monday.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden blamed Iran for the attack on Tower 22, on the Syria-Iraq border, and vowed a response. It was the first deadly strike on U.S. forces in the region since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7.
A Tehran-funded and armed group called the Iraqi Islamic Resistance claimed responsibility for the attack.
Biden said Iran was behind the unmanned drone, which was likely launched by one of the several militias funded and armed by Iran across the Middle East. Despite the presence of Iranian military advisers in the militias, Iran said it wasn’t involved. Kanaani said the various “resistance groups” in the region don't take orders from Tehran.
"There is a conflict between U.S. forces and resistance groups in the region, which reciprocate retaliatory attacks,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement issued from New York. "Iran had no connection and had nothing to do with the attack on the U.S. base."
Little is publicly known about the base that was hit, Reuters reported. It houses about 350 Army and Air Force personnel and includes logistics support. It’s also near the Al-Tanf garrison, in Syria, home to a small number of U.S. troops engaged in the ongoing fight against the Islamic State, and part of a U.S. strategy to contain Iran's military build-up in eastern Syria.
The drone hit a barracks and wounded at least 35 more people.
- Iran ‘Escalates’ Middle East Tensions With Ballistic Missile Attack Near US Consulate in Iraq
- ISIS Takes Responsibility for Iran Terror Attack, Deadliest in Decades
- Biden Warns Iran US Will Respond if It Attacks Troops in the Middle East
- Pentagon Says it Will ‘Hold Iran Responsible’ for Drone Attacks on American Troops
- Biden Orders Christmas Strikes on Iran-Backed Militia After Drone Attack Critically Injured US Service Member in Iraq
- Radar Confusion Had US Convinced Terror Drone That Killed 3 Soldiers Was Its Own Weapon: Report
The attack on Tower 22 is increasing pressure on Biden to engage directly with Iran, a step he has been reluctant to take.
He also has the option of retaliating against the Iran-backed militias the U.S. believes carried out the attack.
U.S. forces in the Middle East have been attacked more than 150 times by Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and the Red Sea since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, described the incident as a “game changer” in the intensifying standoff between Tehran and Washington.
The attack’s lethal outcome “means that Biden’s response is going to have to be more significant than everything he’s done until now,” he said. “It forces Biden’s hand.”
Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East told The Messenger that the U.S. should attack the militia that fired the drone, as well as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Forces.
“The only thing they understand is force,” he said about Iran. “it’s time to use it.”
Iranian-born analyst Trita Parsi said in an email to The Messenger that the U.S. should withdraw troops from Iraq and Syria and move swiftly to end the war in Gaza. “It is unquestionable that the attacks by these militias are linked to Biden’s blocking of a ceasefire” in Gaza, he said. He noted that the U.S. can project force in the region and that U.S. bases on the ground make easy targets and made-to-order irritants for local groups.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group for Iranian-linked militias, claimed responsibility for the attack, the Washington Post reported, citing an unidentified senior official with the organization.
“If the U.S. keeps supporting Israel, there will be escalations,” the official said. “All U.S. interests in the region are legitimate targets, and we don’t care about U.S. threats to respond. … Martyrdom is our prize.”