The United States believes that a group of groups called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq is behind the drone attack in Jordan that killed three US soldiers, the White House said on Wednesday (31) in its first formal attribution of responsibility in the case.
“We believe the attack in Jordan was planned, financed and facilitated by an umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which contains several groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
He stopped short of assigning blame to Kata'ib Hezbollah, saying it was not the only group responsible for previous attacks on US bases.
“This certainly has the characteristics of the types of things that Kata'ib Hezbollah does,” he mused, adding: “The attribution that our intelligence community is comfortable with is that this was done by the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in the Iraq”.
The attack was the most serious of several that have targeted U.S. forces in the Middle East since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. This was the first time that American troops had died under direct fire in the region since the start of the war in Gaza.
Military dead and counterattack
The dead soldiers were identified as:
- Sergeant William Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia;
- Sergeant Kennedy Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; It is
- Sergeant Breonna Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia.
Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted from the rank of specialist to sergeant, the Army Reserve said.
Biden spoke to the families of each of the three soldiers on Tuesday (30) and will participate in a “dignified transfer” at Dover Air Force Base this Friday (2), officials said.
In addition to the three dead, more than 40 American soldiers were injured. Three of those soldiers were transferred to a hospital in Germany on Tuesday night for treatment. They are stable, but one is in critical condition.
Kirby stated that as the US prepares to respond to the attack, there would be multiple phases of a counterattack.
“We will respond in our time and on our schedule”, he highlighted, adding: “The first thing [resposta] What you see will not be the last.”
He commented that US intelligence was monitoring signs of groups in the region moving resources ahead of the US counterattack.
Biden told reporters on Tuesday that he had decided how to respond to the attack, but did not elaborate on what the response would be.
Source: CNN Brasil
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