{"id":280895,"date":"2024-01-29T09:05:09","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T09:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=280895"},"modified":"2024-01-31T09:08:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T09:08:29","slug":"target-tehran-republican-senators-call-for-retaliation-after-3-u-s-troops-killed-by-iran-backed-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=280895","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Target Tehran\u2019: Republican Senators Call For Retaliation After 3 U.S. Troops Killed By \u2018Iran-Backed\u2019 Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tower 22<\/div>\n

Zachary Folk \u2013 Forbes Jan 28, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

At least three American soldiers were killed in a drone strike that injured another 25 service members on a military base on Sunday in northeastern Jordan, the White House<\/a> said, the first U.S. deaths in the Middle East since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel\u2014and Republicans are demanding an immediate response.<\/p>\n

Key Facts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

An unmanned aerial drone struck American troops at Tower 22, a small outpost in Jordan near the country\u2019s border with Syria, CNN<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

At least 34 servicemembers were being treated for possible traumatic brain injuries, Reuters<\/a> reported citing U.S. officials, and some were transported off base for additional medical care.<\/p>\n

Tower 22 is located close to the al-Tanf military base in Syria, one of two U.S. bases attacked in the country on October 26, 2023, resulting in minor injuries for 21 servicemembers.<\/p>\n

The White House said they were still gathering information about the strike, but confirmed it was carried out by a \u201cradical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> released on Sunday, President Biden called the attacks \u201cdespicable and wholly unjust\u201d and promised to hold the perpetrators responsible.<\/p>\n

Although dozens of U.S. troops have been injured in attacks<\/a> on bases in the Middle East since the Israel-Gaza war broke out in October, Sunday\u2019s attack marks the first time Americans have been killed in one of these assaults.<\/p>\n

Key Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The U.S. maintains a significant troop presence in the Middle East, with about 2,500 troops located in Iraq and 900 in Syria left in place as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.\u2019s campaign against the Islamic State in the region. Jordan remains a key U.S. ally in the region, and also hosts about 3,000 American troops, according to a White House<\/a> estimate from June 2023. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October, troop positions have come under attack by missile and drone strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan, Baghdad and eastern Syria. Additionally, the U.S. Navy has shot down dozens of drones and missiles launched by Houthi militants in Yemen, who began targeting Israel-linked shipping vessels after the war broke out. The Navy\u2019s presence near Yemen is part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational task force designed to protect Red Sea shipping lanes from these attacks<\/p>\n

Contra<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Although the Biden administration promised to \u201chold all those responsible to account,\u201d Republicans in the Senate immediately criticized the administration and called for a harsher military response against Iran. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a longtime critic of Iran, said the Biden administration\u2019s policy of air strikes against Iranian proxy groups has so far failed. \u201c[Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin\u2019s efforts to deter aggression against our forces in the region has failed miserably. I\u2019ve long since lost confidence in the Biden national security team to deter Iran,\u201d Graham said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cHit Iran now. Hit them hard.\u201d In a statement, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said the \u201cappeasement of Iran must end. It\u2019s time for clear and decisive action, and Iran must be held accountable for the malign activities of its proxies.\u201d Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was much more succinct in a post on X<\/a>: \u201cTarget Tehran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tangent<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The troops at Tower 22 were the first U.S. service members killed in a direct attack in the widening conflict across the Middle East. However, they were not the first Americans to die during military operations since the Israel-Gaza war began in October. On October 19, 2023, a U.S. civilian contractor at the Ain al-Assad base in Syria died from cardiac arrest while sheltering in place during a false alarm, Reuters<\/a> reported. In January, two Navy SEALS were reported missing while searching for Iranian weapons<\/a> off the coast of Somalia, which authorities believed were bound for Houthi militants in Yemen. The search for the missing SEALs was called off ten days later.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following drone strike by a suspected Iranian backed militia on U.S. troops in Syria, Washington hawks call on President Biden to strike Iran “hard”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":280896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,28,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Iran","category-Iraq","category-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280895"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280921,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280895\/revisions\/280921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/280896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}