The White House says it is responding after a deadly drone attack in Jordan
Three American soldiers were killed and 34 others were injured during a drone strike on a base in Jordan.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday he has made a decision on how to respond to the recent attack on a military base in Jordan that killed three American soldiers and wounded 25 others.
Asked whether he held Iran responsible, Biden said: “I hold them responsible in the sense that they are supplying weapons to the people who did this.”
Biden spoke to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before heading to Palm Beach, Florida, to collect donations.
The president's statements come in the wake of a pledge he made on the day of the attack to take quick measures to deal with the attacks. “We will respond,” he said Sunday.
Biden blamed the drone air attack on forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border on “Iranian-backed extremist armed groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”
He pledged to “hold all those responsible accountable at the time and in the manner we choose.”
In his remarks on Tuesday, Biden did not reveal any details about what the response would look like.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday that he was not in a position today to confirm which armed group was responsible for the attack.
He added: “We are still working on the analysis, but it is clear that the work bears all the hallmarks of groups supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and indeed by Hezbollah as well.”
The three American soldiers were the first to be killed by hostile fire in the Middle East since Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, igniting a war that has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a statement, also vowed revenge.
Meanwhile, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina and Tom Cotton of Arkansas were quick to blame Biden for the tragedy and joined Senator John Cornyn of Texas in calling for a military strike on Iran.
Former President Donald Trump, the GOP's main presidential rival, blamed Biden for the attack on Truth Social.
“This brazen attack on the United States is another horrific and tragic consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender…” he wrote.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent focusing on economics for USA TODAY. You can follow her on XSwapnaVenugopal
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