The US military has released the names of the three Army Reserve soldiers killed in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants in Jordan.
The personnel killed in the incident were Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia.
"On behalf of the Army Reserve, I share in the sorrow felt by their friends, family, and loved ones," said Lieutenant General Jody Daniels, chief of the Army Reserve and commanding general of US Army Reserve Command.
"Their service and sacrifice will not be forgotten, and we are committed to supporting those left behind in the wake of this tragedy," she said.
The attack also wounded more than 40 troops when the drone struck the housing units early on Sunday morning.
Earlier, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed that the United States would take "all necessary actions" to defend its troops after a drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three US service members and wounded dozens more.
The attack was the first deadly strike against US troops since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October and marks a major escalation in tensions that have engulfed the Middle East.
"Let me start with my outrage and sorrow (for) the deaths of three brave US troops in Jordan and for the other troops who were wounded," Mr Austin said at the Pentagon.
"The president and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops," Mr Austin added at the start of meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Pentagon.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that President Joe Biden was weighing his options for responding.
"We are not seeking a war with Iran," he said.
The United States is trying to determine exactly why the nearly 350 troops at the base in Jordan, known as Tower 22, were unable to stop the drone.
Two officials said a US drone was approaching the base around the same time the attack drone was incoming.
One of the officials said the attack drone was also flying low, factors that may have contributed to it being missed by base defences.
US troops have been attacked over 150 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, as well as on warships in the Red Sea, where Houthi fighters in Yemen have been firing drones and missiles at them.
The attacks are piling political pressure on Mr Biden to deal a blow directly against Iran, a step he has been reluctant to take out of fear of igniting a broader war.
Mr Biden met Mr Austin and other members of his national security team in the White House Situation Room this morning to discuss the latest developments regarding the attack, the White House said.
The president's options could range anywhere from targeting Iranian forces outside to even inside Iran or opting for a more cautious retaliatory attack solely against the Iran-backed militants responsible, experts said.
"Iran continues to destabilise the region, this includes backing terrorists who attack our ships in the Red Sea," Mr Stoltenberg said.
At least 34 personnel were injured in the Jordan attack, but that number is expected to change as more people seek care.
Eight personnel were evacuated from Jordan for higher-level care, but are in stable condition.
The attack, and any potential US response, is likely to prompt fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East, where war broke out in Gaza after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas' attack on Israel on 7 October, which killed 1,200 people.
Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 26,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health ministry.
The United States has already retaliated in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in response to previous attacks by Iran-backed groups.
"He's weighing the options before him," Mr Kirby told reporters.
"As he said yesterday, we will respond. We'll do that on our schedule and our time and we'll do it in the manner of the president's choosing as commander in chief.
"We'll also do it fully cognisant of the fact that these groups, backed by Tehran, have just taken the lives of American troops," Mr Kirby said, adding that the United States was not seeking to escalate and not looking for a war with Iran.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was concerned about tensions in the Middle East and urged Iran to de-escalate.
Iran's minister of intelligence said that regional armed groups aligned with Tehran respond to "American aggressors" at their own discretion.
Experts have cautioned that any strikes against Iranian forces inside Iran could force Tehran to respond forcefully, escalating the situation in a way that could drag the United States into a major Middle East war.
Iran said it had nothing to do with the attack and denied US and British accusations that it supported militant groups responsible for the strike on the remote frontier base in Jordan's northeast, near the borders with Iraq and Syria.
Earlier, Mr Biden said in a statement that "while we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq."
He pledged to hold "all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing".
Mr Biden later held a moment of silence at a South Carolina church banquet hall for the US troops killed in the attack, vowing: "We shall respond."
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron joined Mr Biden in blaming "Iran-aligned militia" and called on Tehran to "de-escalate the region".
Iran denied any links to the attack, with foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani describing the accusations as "baseless" and a "projection".
"The Islamic Republic of Iran does not welcome the expansion of conflict in the region," said Mr Kanani in a statement, adding that Tehran "is not involved in the decisions of the resistance groups".
With the region already tense as fighting rages in Gaza, the strike also raises fears of a broader conflict directly involving Tehran.
'Regional explosion'
There has so far been no claim of responsibility for the strike, although the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed to have launched three drone attacks at bases in Syria, including near the Jordanian border.
The group, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict and wants them out of Iraq, has claimed dozens of attacks on US and anti-jihadist coalition forces in Iraq.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Jordan attack was "a message to the American administration".
"The continuation of the American-Zionist aggression on Gaza risks a regional explosion," Mr Abu Zuhri said.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) last night said the attack had hit the remote Tower 22 logistics support base and that 34 personnel were also wounded, eight of whom required evacuation.
There are around 350 US Army and Air Force personnel at the base who operate in support roles, including for the international coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group, CENTCOM said.
Jordan's government spokesman Muhannad Mubaidin condemned the attack, as did Bahrain, Egypt and Iraq.
The Iraqi government urged an "end to the cycle of violence" in the region.
The escalating Middle East conflict poses a challenge to Mr Biden in an election year.
Republican politicians were quick to take aim at Mr Biden over the deadly attack, including his predecessor Donald Trump, who described the situation as a "consequence of Joe Biden's weakness and surrender".
US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted in more than 150 attacks since mid-October, according to the Pentagon, and Washington has carried out retaliatory strikes in both countries.
The US has on occasion responded to those attacks with strikes against pro-Iran militants.
The latest round of the Israel-Hamas conflict began when the Palestinian militant group carried out an unprecedented attack on 7 October that resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel retaliated with a relentless military offensive that has killed at least 26,422 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.
Anger over that campaign has grown across the region, with violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, as well as Yemen.
There have been near-daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon. US forces are directly involved in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
The US and Britain have both carried out strikes targeting Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have been attacking Red Sea shipping in support of Palestinians in Gaza for more than two months.
Iran executes four men convicted of spying for Israel
Iran has executed four men after they were convicted of collaborating with the country's arch-foe Israel on a plan to sabotage an Iranian defence site, according to the judiciary.
The four defendants, identified as Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Wafa Azarbar, Pejman Fatehi, were arrested in July 2022 and accused of plotting to carry out out an operation against a Ministry of Defence centre in the central province of Isfahan, according to the judiciary's Mizan Online website.
"The death sentence of four members of a group affiliated with the Zionist spy organisation, who were arrested... for plotting a bombing operation in Isfahan, was carried out this morning," Mizan Online reported.
According to Iran, the men had been recruited by Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, "about a year and a half before the operation".
They were sent to African countries for "training courses in the military centres" where Mossad officers were present, the judiciary added.
The men were sentenced to death in September 2023.
In August 2023, Iran claimed to have foiled a "very complex" Mossad-initiated project to "sabotage" its ballistic missile industry.
A few months earlier, in February, Tehran accused Israel of being responsible for a drone attack on a military site in Isfahan.
The two countries have been engaged in a shadow war for decades, with Iran regularly accusing Israel and its ally the United States of inciting unrest.
Iran FM in Pakistan for talks after tit-for-tat air strikes
Iran's foreign minister is in Pakistan for talks, as both nations sought to ease tensions after deadly cross-border strikes threatened diplomatic relations.
Pakistan's foreign ministry shared pictures and video of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian arriving in Islamabad, saying he would hold talks with his local counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani and call on caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar.
On 18 January Pakistan launched air strikes on what it called "militant targets" in Iran, two days after similar Iranian strikes on its territory.
The tit-for-tat raids in the porous border region of Baluchistan - split between the two nations - stoked regional tensions already inflamed by the Israel-Hamas war.
On Saturday, gunmen in southeastern Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province killed nine people, with Islamabad's ambassador identifying them as Pakistanis.
Sistan-Baluchistan is one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran.
It has seen persistent unrest involving cross-border drug-smuggling gangs and rebels from the Baluch ethnic minority, as well as jihadists.
The initial Iranian strikes, which Pakistan said killed at least two children, drew a sharp rebuke from Islamabad, which recalled its ambassador from Tehran and blocked Iran's envoy from returning to his post.
Tehran also summoned Islamabad's charge d'affaires over Pakistan's strikes, which left at least nine people dead.
The two countries, however, since announced they have decided to de-escalate and resume diplomatic missions with the two ambassadors returning to their posts.
