The responsibility for the attacks was claimed by militia in Iraq who have been targeting US bases across the region since October 7 for its military and diplomatic support for the Israeli war in Gaza
At least three US soldiers were killed and 34 were wounded in an attack on one of its outposts near Syria-Jordan border on Sunday, January 28.
The responsibility for the attacks was claimed by the Islamic Resistance Forces in Iraq which also claimed that it had targeted at least two other US bases in Syria and Iraq and one base in Israel on the same day.
This is the first time that US soldiers have been killed in over 150 attacks carried out by various resistance forces in the region since October 7.
The Islamic Resistance Forces is a constituent of the Hashd al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq. It has been targeting US bases in the region in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance to Israel in Gaza.
More than 26,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 65,000 have been wounded due to Israel’s indiscriminate bombings and land offensive inside the besieged territory since October 7.
The PMF, also a part of “the Axis of Resistance” against US imperialism and colonial projects in the region, holds the US directly responsible for the killing of Palestinians as it has provided military and diplomatic support to the Israeli war machine.
It has demanded that the US stop supporting the Israeli war in Gaza and withdraw all its troops from the region.
The US forces have retaliated against some of the attacks, killing a couple of PMF members in Iraq. One such US strike in the first week of January had killed one senior commander of the PMF, Hajj Moshtaq Taleb al-Saidi (Abu Taqwa) in Baghdad. In a similar attack, a PMF training center was destroyed last week.
Meanwhile, the US President Joe Biden blamed the attack in Jordan on militant groups backed by Iran in a statement on Sunday.
Though Biden claimed the attack happened inside Jordanian borders, Jordan initially denied the claims. In a statement issued later, Jordan condemned the “terrorist” attacks and said it is working with the US to secure its borders.
Some commentators have suggested that the dispute over the exact location of the attack is related to the legality of the presence of US troops. The US bases in Jordan have consent of the Jordanian regime, whereas their presence inside Syria is illegal.
Biden also claimed that US forces are gathering all the facts and will surely retaliate “at the time and in the manner of our choice.”
Iran denied Biden’s allegations claiming that it had no links with the attacks. The statement issued by Iran’s mission at the UN added that the attacks were related to “conflict between the army of the United States of America and resistance groups in the region, which reciprocate [with] retaliatory attacks.”
In a press statement on Monday, spokesperson of Iran’s foreign ministry Nasser Kanaani repeated the denial and warned the US to stop supporting Israeli attacks on Palestinians and avoid violating the sovereignty of countries in the region such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
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