US bolsters defences around Jordan base

The US has bolstered defences at a base in Jordan that was attacked by Iran-backed militants as it prepares for a wider US response to a drone attack that killed three service members, a US official said on Friday. Even as a larger US military response seemed imminent, some Iran-backed factions pledged to continue to attack US forces in the region. In a statement released on Friday, one of Iraq’s strongest Iran-backed militias, Harakat al-Nujaba, announced its plans to continue military operations against US troops, despite other allied factions having called off their attacks in the wake of a Sunday drone strike that killed three US service members in Jordan. While previous US responses have been more limited, the attack on Tower 22, as the Jordan outpost is known, and the deaths of the three service members has crossed a line, the official said. The base was struck by an Iranian-made drone fired from Iraq, the official said. In the days since the attack, the US has bolstered the defences around Tower 22, which houses about 350 US troops and sits near the demilitarised zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border is only 6 miles (10 kilometers) away. In response, the US is weighing response options to include striking militia leaders. The US options under consideration include targets in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, where the Iranian-made drone that killed the service members was fired from, the official said. The US has blamed the Jordan attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. On Thursday Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin indicated that the US response against the militias would widen. “At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past,” Austin said in his first press conference since he was hospitalised on January 1 due to complications from prostate cancer treatment. Austin said that Iran has had a hand in the attacks by supplying and training the militias.