A drone strike blamed on Iran-aligned militias on Sunday killed at least three US service members and injured 34 at an American military base in northeast Jordan, near the Syrian border.
Biden is facing mounting domestic pressure with elections coming up later this year, particularly from Republicans who are urging the president to take action against Iran for the drone strike. Some radical voices, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, have called on direct strikes against Iran.
The White House has warned several times that “multiple actions” would be taken in retaliation for the drone strike, which marks the first fatal attack on American troops in the Middle East since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October.
“Yes,” Biden told reporters when asked if he had decided on a response without revealing any specifics.
“I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for,” he added as he set off for Florida.
Washington has been entangled in the recent uptick of violence and tension in the region since Israel began launching airstrikes on Gaza on October 7, in response to Hamas attacks against Israel.
US troops in Iraq and Syria have come under attack over 165 times since. Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, an umbrella group comprising of Iran-backed factions, in what they say is a response to Washington’s support for Israel.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have also carried out numerous attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting vital commercial waterways. The US and the UK have also launched airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in retaliation.
However, the deaths of troops in the Jordan drone strikes have raised concerns of even further escalation in the region.
“I do hold them responsible, in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it,” Biden replied when asked about whether Iran was behind the drone attack.
"It's very possible that what you'll see is a tiered approach here, not just a single action but potentially multiple actions," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One, as cited by AFP.
Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia group experts say is closely aligned with Iran and its Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on Tuesday announced its suspension of all military operations against American troops. The group is also part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019.