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US Navy patrolling the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea against Iran 🇮🇷 /Houthis’ 🇾🇪 Thread
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Who Replied?U.S. Failed to Stop Drone Attack Because of Identification Mixup
Enemy drone approached its target at the same time a U.S. drone was also returning to base
The U.S. failed to stop a deadly attack on an American military outpost in Jordan because the enemy drone approached its target at the same time a U.S. drone was also returning to base, U.S. officials said Monday.
The enemy drone was launched from Iraq by a militia backed by Tehran, U.S. officials said. The outpost, Tower 22, sits in Jordan, hard on the borders of Iraq and Syria.
The U.S. has yet to find evidence thus far that Iran directed the attack, a U.S. defense official said Monday.
The attack signaled an escalation in hostilities that have been growing since the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. Biden said the U.S. would respond.
The U.S. is weighing strikes against militias in Iraq and Syria, as well as within Iran, the officials said. An attack on Iranian soil seemed like a less likely option, U.S. officials said.
In addition to determining how to respond to the drone attack on Tower 22, the administration is also considering strikes against Houthi targets in response to their attacks on commercial U.S. military ships. On Friday, a U.S. destroyer, the USS Carney, shot down a ballistic missile fired toward it from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen, the Pentagon said, marking the second time the U.S. has announced that the group has targeted one of its military vessels.
The Biden administration has to weigh a response forceful enough to deter Iranian allies from conducting further attacks on U.S. forces and interests while avoiding getting bogged down in another war in the Middle East.
The Reagan administration attacked Iranian ships and offshore oil platforms in clashes with Tehran, but the U.S. military hasn’t previously attacked targets on Iranian territory.
Former officials have said the administration might choose from a variety of options short of striking Iranian territory, such as attacking Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force personnel in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, hitting Iranian ships at sea or conducting a major attack on the Iranian-backed militia group that is assessed to be responsible.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday said the U.S. was still working to establish who was specifically responsible for the attack, but believed the perpetrators were supported by Kataib Hezbollah, which is one of Iran’s main militia allies and is based in Iraq with forces in Syria.
Biden would respond “in a time and manner of his own choosing” and “in a very consequential way,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN.
“We don’t want to see these attacks continue. And we want to make it clear that they’re unacceptable. We also want to make it clear that we’ll do what we have to do to protect our troops, our facilities, our national security interests in the region,” Kirby said. “But we don’t seek a war with Iran. We’re not looking for a wider conflict in the Middle East.”
Aresu Eqbali, Benoit Faucon, Rory Jones and Jared Malsin contributed to this article.
Write to Nancy A. Youssef at nancy.youssef@wsj.com, Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com
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