President Biden said Tuesday he’s decided how to respond to the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan, but said he doesn’t want a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Departing for Florida, Mr. Biden wouldn’t elaborate on what that response would entail. He told reporters that he holds Iran partly responsible for the deaths, though he didn’t comment on possible targets.
“I do hold them responsible in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it,” he said outside the White House.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said later that the U.S. military response likely will be a “tiered approach,” suggesting multiple attacks over a period of time instead of a singular strike.
Mr. Biden declined to say whether his team established a direct link to Iran, saying: “We’ll have that discussion.”
An enemy drone on Sunday struck a small military installation known as Tower 22, killing three American troops and injuring about 40 more. Some reports suggest the weapon might have been mistaken for a U.S. drone returning to the installation, so it wasn’t shot down.
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Calls for an urgent response are putting Mr. Biden in a tough spot. He wants to retaliate, though doesn’t want to worsen matters in an already turbulent Middle East, where Houthis rebels are attacking ships in the Red Sea and Israel is rooting out Hamas militants in Gaza.
Some Republican hardliners want Mr. Biden to hit Iran within its borders, but many analysts see that as unlikely.
“I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East,” Mr. Biden said. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”
Mr. Kirby said he could not confirm which group was responsible for the Jordan attack, but it has “all the hallmarks” of groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“We’re going to respond, and we’re going to do it in a way and a time of our own choosing,” Mr. Kirby told reporters on Air Force One. “That’s not a different approach than we’ve taken in the past.”
He said the Department of Defense is working to determine who made the drone used in the attack.
Mr. Biden on Tuesday spoke to the families of the Americans who died in the attack: Sgt. William Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Specialist Kennedy Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Specialist Breonna Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia.
Mr. Biden plans to attend the dignified transfer of their bodies at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
The families supported his decision to attend, according to Mr. Kirby.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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