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Greater than 30 service members had been injured within the assault, together with a number of who had been recognized with traumatic mind damage, in keeping with a U.S. official. These troops had been a number of the eight who had been medically evacuated from the bottom to a different facility in Jordan for extra care, the official mentioned, including that some had been being assessed for transport overseas for follow-up care.
In the meantime, the DOD official and a second U.S. official advised POLITICO that an hour and a half after the strike on the small base, often called Tower 22, Iranian proxies launched one other drone at a U.S. base simply throughout the border in Syria, al-Tanf Garrison. A U.S. drone,
RTX’s Coyote uncrewed aerial system, shot it down, the DOD official added.
Tower 22 and al-Tanf Garrison are simply kilometers aside, and U.S. drones usually defend each, the DOD official mentioned.
The information comes because the Pentagon continues to be gathering details about how a drone launched by Iranian proxies penetrated U.S. defenses and struck the residing quarters at Tower 22, a strike that additionally injured at the least 34 extra service members.
The Wall Road Journal was
first to report that the enemy drone approached as a U.S. drone was additionally returning to base, though officers quoted in that report mentioned the simultaneous approaches created confusion.
Biden on Sunday mentioned the U.S. “shall reply,” however the strikes continued on Monday, with Iranian proxies launching an assault at U.S. patrol base al-Shaddadi, in northeast Syria, in keeping with the second U.S. official. Total, U.S. troops have been attacked 165 occasions since Oct. 17: 66 occasions in Iraq; 98 in Syria; and as soon as in Jordan, the official mentioned.
Tower 22 is a small outpost usually housing solely 300 to 350 troops, mentioned retired Gen. Joseph Votel, who served as head of U.S. Central Command from 2016 to 2019. The bottom in Jordan sits near the triple border with Syria and Iraq, and is hooked up to the Rukban refugee camp.
The bottom serves as a crossing level for U.S. particular operations forces shifting into Syria, and is a a logistics hub supporting the combat in Syria towards the Islamic State, Votel mentioned. U.S. coaching of Jordanian forces additionally takes place there, he mentioned.
The residing quarters at Tower 22 are “very short-term,” he mentioned. “You wouldn’t discover brick-and-mortar buildings at a location like that.”
Republican members of Congress on Sunday
referred to as on Biden to focus on Iran instantly in response. On Monday, former senior navy officers joined in, as retired Adm. James Stavridis, the previous supreme allied commander of NATO,
proposed seizing an Iranian naval or business vessel.
Votel in an interview urged Biden to ship an “unambiguous” message that the U.S. holds Iran accountable. Washington ought to think about hanging belongings “of worth to Iran and [causing] them to pay a worth for this,” he mentioned, as an illustration taking out leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Quds Drive, or websites related to these organizations.
A U.S. strike on Iranian soil “shouldn’t be off the desk,” however is simply one of many choices that must be thought of, he mentioned.
“Iran, I believe, is accountable for this,” Votel mentioned. “Iran is at all times making an attempt to push the bounds so far as they will go.”
Matt Berg contributed to this report.
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