United States: One US official announced on Friday that the United States is increasing defenses at a base in Jordan, where Iranian insurgent allies had attacked it as part of each time this prepares for Iran’s efforts to retaliate against the all-American response because US prior drone attack killed three service members who were working there.
Iran Denies Further Loss of American Lives
However, while the US appeared ready to respond with a greater military presence in Iraq and Iran said that no more American lives were lost when its missiles struck two bases housing US forces there early on Wednesday, some Iranian-backed groups promised neither side is seeking war or regime change but will keep killing Americans until they scale back their regional footprint annually more significant political situation.
On Friday, one of the most powerful Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Harakat al-Nujaba- issued a statement that it was going to fight with US forces despite previous other allied factions who had put attacks on hold after Sunday’s drone hits.
Although some groups of militias had posed threats to US bases for years, the Israel Haram war allowed them further opportunities, and they increased their attacks following an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that led to Hamas. Right now, the war has resulted in mass murders of citizens, still numbering thousands from Gaza, and spilled over to another four counties.
Armed militias, primarily controlled and organized by Iran throughout the region, have sought to exploit this conflict in order to attack Israeli or US targets, including civilian merchant ships or US warships with drones or missiles at a rate of almost once daily each day.
Missile Intercept and Counterstrikes in Yemen
The Israeli military claimed Friday that it had been successful in intercepting a missile allegedly heading towards the country from the Red Sea using its Arrow defense system and thus suspecting Yemen’s Houthi rebels of launching such projectiles 2. The rebels, however, did not own up instantly.
On the same note, a second US official mentioned that on Friday and for self-defense reasons, only Houthi military targets within Yemen were hit by counterstrikes. Reportedly, press service Al-Masirah, controlled by the Houthis, announced through its Twitter account that three strikes were performed against the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah, where the Houthi military base was located; British and American forces allegedly made them in 2021.
The strike on Tower 22, as the Jordan outpost is called locally, and the deaths of three service members have gone further than previous US responses in Iraq …” The US, in its turn, considers a much broader response that may even include the hits of militia chiefs. According to an official, the US options being assessed include sites in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq from where the service members were killed by manufactured Iranian drones.
Increased US Presence at Jordan Outpost
The US has pinned the Jordan attack on Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which is a grouping of Iranian-supported militias. Since the attack, US forces have reinforced the barricade around Tower 22 with a total of about three hundred and fifty troops in it, which is located near Jordan’s border with Syria at an area designated as the demilitarized zone between the two nations. With the Iraqi border a mere 10 kilometers, six miles away.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Austin suggested that the US’s retaliation would broaden to include other militias.
“At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past,” said Austin during his first briefing after he was hospitalized on Jan. 1 because of complications as a result of prostate cancer treatment.
Austin said that Iran has been involved in the attacks by arming and training the militias. The US, another official said, has sent messages through backchannels to Iran in recent months to encourage them to control the militant groups.
The officials said they were not allowed to talk before things were fully disclosed on the condition of anonymity.
The US has also attempted less invasive military reactions as a sequence of attacks on weapons storehouse locations and training grounds. This comes after the US response has not scared away these groups that have since October attacked American facilities at least 166 times.
That same Tuesday, a powerful Iranian-backed Iraq militia group known as Kataib Hezbollah, regarded by US officials as having suspended fire, announced they would suspend attacks on the “baggage United States” operations to spare Baghdad’s blushes following the Amman attack.