WASHINGTON (CN) — The Department of Defense identified three Georgia-based Army Reserve soldiers killed Sunday in a strike on a U.S. military facility in Jordan.
Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, died when the drone struck their housing unit, the Pentagon said Monday.
The soldiers were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, based out of Fort Moore. More than 40 other soldiers were injured in the attack.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged to “take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests,” but as of Monday afternoon, President Joe Biden had not decided how to respond to the attacks.
While the White House refused to comment on specifics of the attack, media outlets reported that a drone approached the military outpost around the same time an American drone was returning to the base, causing uncertainty over whether it was hostile and delaying a response. Administration officials believe an Iran-backed militia group is behind Sunday’s attack on the facility, which supports U.S. efforts to combat the Islamic State in the region.
The Biden administration sought Monday to downplay concerns that the strike was a significant escalation of tensions in the Middle East. Officials have been juggling multiple spillovers of Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, including attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by the Houthis, rocket attacks on U.S. and allied facilities in Iraq and Syria and blows between Israel and Lebanon.
The U.S. has meanwhile carried out attacks on militant groups in Yemen and Iraq, but Washington has sought to separate those efforts from its full-throated support of Israel.
“We do not seek another war. We do not seek to escalate,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. “But we will absolutely do what is required to protect ourselves.”
U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked roughly 165 times since Oct. 17, which Kirby said shows Sunday’s strike was not particularly escalatory.
“The fact that this one had lethal consequences doesn’t mean that the previous ones weren’t intended by these Iran-backed militias to have that effect,” he said. “This time they killed Americans and they wounded a lot of them. It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have preferred that outcome in the past.”
Republicans used the attack to criticize Biden’s foreign policy moves, with some calling for retaliatory strikes within Iran.
“When our leaders project weakness, it only serves to embolden those who wish to harm the United States and our troops,” Representative Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, said on X, formerly Twitter.
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, criticized attempts to politicize the attack.
“We should be focused on holding those responsible for this attack accountable, keeping our troops safe, & avoiding a war in the Middle East,” he wrote online.
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