US starts retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria, officials say

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows a military base known as Tower 22 in northeastern Jordan, on October 12, 2023. Three American troops were killed and “many” were wounded Sunday, January 28, 2024, in a drone strike in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border, President Joe Biden said. He blamed Iran-backed militia groups for the first US fatalities after months of strikes against American forces across the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war. US officials identified Tower 22 as the site of the attack. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

WASHINGTON  – The United States carried out retaliatory strikes on Friday in Iraq and Syria against facilities linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the militias they back, four U.S. officials said, after a deadly attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops and injured some 40 others.

The strikes are believed to be just the first in a multi-tiered response by President Joe Biden’s administration in response to the attack last weekend carried out by Iran-backed militants.

While the U.S. strikes did not target any locations inside Iran, they are likely to increase concern about tensions in the Middle East spiraling from Israel’s more than three-month-old war with Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.

Two of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a formal statement was expected in the coming hour.

Syrian state media said on Friday that an “American aggression” on sites in Syria’s desert areas and the Syrian and Iraqi border resulted in a number of casualties and injuries.

It came just hours after Biden and Pentagon leaders attended the remains of the three American soldiers killed in the Jordan attack returning to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The Jordan attack was the first deadly strike against U.S. troops since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October and marked a major escalation in tensions.

The United States has assessed that the drone that killed three of its soldiers and also wounded more than 40 other people was made by Iran, U.S. officials have told Reuters.