The United States has revealed the identities of three troops who were killed in a drone attack in Jordan last week.
The U.S. Army Reserve Command said the victims are Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Willingboro, New Jersey; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia.
The U.S. Army Reserve soldiers were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, Fort Moore, Ga.
They died when a remotely controlled drone hit their container housing units. Besides them, 40 US personnel were injured in a drone attack on a US military base in northeast Jordan, near the Syrian border, Sunday.
Of those, eight people had to be evacuated.
The attack occurred at the logistics support base at Tower 22 of the Jordanian Defense Network.
Around 350 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel are deployed to the base, conducting key support functions, including support to the international coalition in the fight against the Islamic State.
During a briefing at the Pentagon, Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said the Department of Defense and the U.S. Central Command are investigating the incident. She said it’s still unclear who is responsible for the attack.
“In terms of attribution for the attack, we know this is an [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ]-backed militia,” she told reporters. “It has the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah. But not making a final assessment on that, our teams here are continuing to do the analysis. We know that Iran is behind it. And certainly as we’ve said before … Iran continues to arm and equip these groups to launch these attacks, and we will certainly hold them responsible.”
Earlier, the Pentagon and the White House blamed Iran-backed militias for the attacks on U.S. forces.
President Joe Biden vowed to take revenge on those responsible for the killing.
Singh reiterated that the U.S. does not seek wider conflict in the Middle East, or wider conflict or a war with Iran. According to her, how the U.S. responds to this most recent attack will be decided by the president following consultation with his national security team and the secretary of defense.
Since October, U.S. service members and U.S. and coalition facilities have been attacked more than 150 times in both Iraq and Syria. Sunday’s attack was the first that led to U.S. troops’ casualties and also the first attack in Jordan.
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