The conflict in the Middle East entered a phase of greater uncertainty yesterday, if that were possible. Three US servicemen were killed and at least 30 others were injured in a drone attack on a small forward US military base called Tower 22, located in Jordan, near the Syrian border.
It is the first time that there have been casualties from the United States since the conflict in the East began after the attack by Hamas inside Israel.
Pending further details in the investigation, President Joe Biden attributed the attack to “radical militant groups with the support of Iran operating in Syria and Iraq”. Paying tribute to the memory of the deceased, Biden promised in his statement a response to the attack.
“We will continue with the commitment to fight terrorism. And, without a doubt, we will hold all those responsible to account at the time and in the way we choose”, he emphasized.
Biden insisted on the three fallen: “They risked their safety for the safety of our fellow Americans, our allies and our partners, with whom we are in the fight against terrorism.” And he reiterated that “it is a fight in which we will not stop”.
These three deaths represent a significant escalation in an already more than precarious situation in that area. As of Friday there had been 158 attacks against US and coalition forces, in a steady stream of drone flights and rocket launches that had been unsuccessful in causing casualties or causing serious damage to infrastructure. Washington and its allies have carried out several retaliatory actions, particularly in the Red Sea against the Houthis, Yemen’s militia, in an effort to disrupt shipping on the important international trade route.
The attack, moreover, takes place while Israel and Hezbollah, another group allied to Tehran, have exchanged fire on the Lebanese border. The action comes when it was expected that Iraq and the United States would open talks to specify the future presence of United States forces in that country, which has requested the departure of international troops from its territory.
It is not clear how the air defenses at this location in Jordan failed to intercept the flying object, in what is the first attack against Tower 22 since this crisis began.
Pentagon officials, and Biden himself, repeated that they do not want an increase in tension in the Middle East with the expansion of the regional war unleashed between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In statements before this attack, the Chief of Staff of the United States, General C.Q. Brown told ABC television that “the goal is to deter those groups and not enter into a greater escalation of the conflict.”
But the deaths of these servicemen only increase the pressure on President Biden to respond forcefully, as confusion grows after the October 7 attack by Hamas. The organization still holds more than a hundred Israeli hostages. The various parties involved in the negotiations were hoping yesterday for a several-day truce to exchange Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
These losses of the US military are added to those of two navy seals who disappeared a few days ago in an operation to intercept weapons that Iran was sending to the Houthis.
