Iran absolutely bears responsibility for the drone attack on Sunday that killed three US service members in Jordan, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said on Monday, while reiterating the Biden administration’s stance against seeking out a wider regional conflict.
Singh said there wasn’t anything different about this weekend’s attack on US facilities housing service members, other than the attack was successful.
The Pentagon identified the three Army Reserve soldiers who died Sunday as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia.; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia.; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia.
Central Command is assessing if the drone wasn’t shot down because troops on the ground thought it was a returning American drone, Singh said.
US doesn’t think Iran wants war
“We can’t discount the fact that other attacks, whether it be Iraq or Syria, were not intended to kill our service members. It is a true tragedy that three of our service members died,” Singh said. “And of course Central Command is looking into what can be done when it comes to our air defenses, and looking into this incident to determine how we can best further strengthen our air defense systems.”
Singh said the US doesn’t see Iran wanting to seek war with the US, and denied that the US is in a regional war with Iran’s proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.
“Since Oct. 17, we’ve seen repeated attacks on US forces,” Singh said. “So we’re not discounting the fact that tensions are high, that these Iranian-backed groups are targeting our military members with the intention of trying to kill them.”
“But we don’t seek a war,” Singh said.
Iranian-backed forces have conducted 165 attacks since Oct. 17 with 66 in Iraq, 98 in Syria, and the one over the weekend in Jordan, Singh said.
According to Singh, previous attacks have come close to Tower 22, where Sunday’s attack occurred, but it had not been a previous target.
Singh reiterated that the US will respond to Iran in its own time, but would not say if a direct response in Iran is on the table.
“We don’t want a war with Iran. Again, these are Iran proxy groups launching these attacks on our service members, but we certainly don’t seek a wider conflict,” Singh said. “But we also own the clock here, and we will respond at a time and place of our choosing.”
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