Iran Denies Role in Drone Attack That Killed Three US Troops

Iran has denied involvement in the drone attack in northeastern Jordan that killed three American troops and wounded at least 34.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the resistance factions in Iraq and Syria were targeting US forces due to the US-backed Israeli massacre in Gaza, not because Tehran is directing them.

“As we have clearly stated before, the resistance groups in the region are responding [to] the war crimes and genocide of the child-killing Zionist regime and… they do not take orders from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said. “These groups decide and act based on their own principles and priorities as well as the interests of their country and people.”

US bases in Iraq and Syria have come under attack about 160 times since mid-October due to President Biden’s support for Israel. An umbrella group of Shia militias known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has taken credit for many of the operations. It’s unclear which specific Iraqi militias are members of the group.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq took credit for attacks on US troops in Syria on the same day three Americans were killed in Jordan. The group said they targeted areas near the Syria-Jordan border but did not say they targeted a US base inside Jordan.

US officials say the attack hit Tower 22, a US base just inside Jordan on the Syrian border that supports the US occupation of eastern Syria. A Jordanian spokesman initially denied the attack targeted Jordan’s territory and claimed it hit the Al Tanf garrison across the border in Syria. But Jordan later released a statement that condemned a “terrorist attack” that killed three Americans who were stationed inside Jordan in an “advanced position” very close to the borders with Syria.

Iran is allied with many of Iraq’s Shia militias, but the US has no evidence Iran is directing the operations against US forces. A US official told CNN back in October that whether or not the groups act independently is always a “persistent intelligence gap” for the US. Regardless, President Biden immediately blamed the attack on “Iran-backed” militants, and hawks in the US are pressuring him to bomb Iran directly, which would likely provoke a major war.