US identifies 3 soldiers killed in attack in Jordan (2024)

The Defense Department released the names of the US soldiers killed in an attack allegedly by Iran-backed militias against a US force in Jordan:

They were all assigned to the 718thEngineer Company, a US Army Reserve unit based out of Fort Moore, Georgia, according to Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.

The United States is “not looking for war” – but the White House on Monday would not rule out the prospect that President Joe Biden is considering strikes within Iran. It comes after three US Army soldiers were killed and more than 30 service members were injured in a drone attack overnight in Jordan.

CNN reported Monday that the killing of three Americans at Tower 22 in Jordan markeda significant escalationof an already precarious situation in the Middle East. Officials said the drone was fired by Iran-backed militants and appeared to come from Syria. It is still being determined which militia group specifically is responsible.

For his part, Biden pledged the United States “shall respond,” in remarks from South Carolina over the weekend. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also reiterated that the US will respond on Monday.

“The president's been crystal clear — we will respond decisively to any aggression,” he said. “And we will hold responsible the people who attacked our troops. We’ll do so at a time and a place of our choosing.”

This post has been updated with Blinken's remarks.

Discussions aimed at unlocking a solution to free the remaining hostages and reach a sustained cessation in fighting in Gaza made progress this weekend, Qatar's prime minister said Monday.

“We are in much better place than where we were a few weeks ago,” Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC. He said the talks on Sunday have made “good progress to get things back in shape and at least to lay a foundation for the way forward."

Al Thani described the framework emerging from the talks in France as a combination of “what’s been proposed by the Israelis and what's been a counter-proposal from Hamas.” in addition to Al Thani, CIA Director Bill Burns and the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs are also involved.

Still, the Qatari prime minister downplayed the prospect of immediate results. The framework must still be relayed to Hamas, he said, and “we don't know and we cannot predict" how the militant group will respond.

Hamas must get “to a place where they engage positively and constructively in the process,” Al Thani said.

Israelalleges that 13 employees of the United Nations’ main relief agency in Gaza were associated with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and took part in varying capacities, ranging from involvement in kidnapping hostagesto being told to set up an operations room, accordingto the summary of the intelligence shared with CNN by an Israeliofficial.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) employs more than 13,000 people in Gaza and provides humanitarian support to the enclave.

CNN has not seen the intelligence that underlies the summary of allegations andcannotcorroborate Israel’s claimsabout individual staffers or the agency's dynamic with Hamas and other groups operating in Gaza.

Of the 13UNRWA employees alleged to have been associated with the attack, theIsraelidocument alleges 10 were Hamas operatives, two were Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives and one is unidentified.

Israel believesthat six UNRWA employees infiltrated Israel as part of the attack, four were involved in kidnapping Israelis, and three additional UNRWA employees were“invited via a SMS text to arrive at an assembly area in the night before the attack and were directed to equip with weapons,”but their presence on October 7 was not confirmed. It also alleges that at least one UNRWA employee supplied logistic support to theattack.

This summary is part of what was provided to US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew and Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues Ambassador David Satterfield in a Friday briefing with Israel’s head of military intelligence, according to the Israeli official.The New York Timesfirst reportedthe details of Israel’s allegations.

When asked about the allegations, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN secretary-general, said the UN had not received the dossier and that UNRWA operates in Gaza with the mandate of the UN General Assembly, a voting body of member states.

Israel has alleged that some of the staffof the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were involved in Hamas’ October 7 attack. The main aid agency in Gazafired several employees in response. But beyond the allegations of recent days, Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, accusing it of aiding Hamas and calling for it to be entirely dismantled.

In 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to dissolve UNRWA and merge it with the main UN refugee agency, the UNHCR. More recently, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has suggested that Israel will seek to stop the UN agency from operating in post-war Gaza, saying it “will not be a part of the day after.”

“We have been warning for years,” Katz said. “UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza.”

UNRWA has repeatedlydenied Israeli allegationsthat its aid is being diverted to Hamas, and that it teaches hatred in its schools, and has questioned “the motivation of those who make such claims, through large advocacy campaigns.” It has condemned the October 7 attack as “abhorrent.” The threat to remove UNRWA from the besieged Gaza Strip has caused UN officials and those who rely on the agency to sound the alarm.

Israel instead views the agency as “a mechanism that perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he told CNN, “And specifically perpetuates the conflict with regards to the right to return, by designating refugees and their descendants from 1948… as refugees.”

The right of return refers to the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel, which was recognized by the 1948UN General Assembly Resolution 194. The fate of refugees is one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Read more about Israel's opposition to UNRWA.

Abeer Salman in Jerusalem and Mohammad Sawalhi in Gaza contributed to this report.

Qatar reasserted its commitment to humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip and called for other countries to continue funding UNRWA, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

During a phone with UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini on Monday, Qatari Minister of State for International Cooperation Lulwah bint Rashid Al-Khater underscored the extensive reach of UNRWA's operations, supporting millions across the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Al-Khater also cautioned that any suspension of funding to the agency could critically impair its capacity to meet the pressing needs of Palestinians in these regions, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Several large donor countries suspended funding from UNRWA after the organization was given information from Israeli authorities alleging that several of its staff members were involved in the terror attacks on October 7 by Hamas. UNRWA said the accused staff members were immediately terminated from their positions.

United States President Joe Biden met with members of his national security team Monday morning on the latest developments in the drone attack that killed three US service members and injured dozens of others in Jordan, the White House said.

Here's who Biden met with, according to a statement from the White House:

The attack over the weekend at a small US outpost in Jordan marked the first fatal attack on US troops since the October 7 attacks. Biden has vowed to respond, but it’s not clear when.

The Netherlands had no other choice but to freeze funding after the “serious” accusations against UNRWA were revealed, theDutch Minister for Foreign Trade & DevelopmentGeoffrey Cab Leeuwen told CNN's Connect The World on Monday.

Leeuwen added that he is scheduled to talk to the head of UNRWA this week to get more clarification on the situation.

"We will remain one of the biggest donors to the Palestinians and the humanitarian situation in Gaza," he added.

Leeuwen says the decision to freeze the funding was not coordinated with other countries.

"We all took that decision because of the shock we had from those reports," he added.

Leeuwen says his country has made an upfront payment of $30 million in aid to UNRWA for 2024.

Here's CNN's interview with the Dutch minister about the funding suspension:

An Iranian-proxy Iraqi Shia group operating in Iraq and Syria warned the US that it will continue attacks if American soldiers do not "leave today.”

The group, Harakat Al-Nujaba, issued the statement one day after a drone attack on an outpost in northern Jordan claimed the lives of three US soldiers and left over 30 others injured. Al-Nujaba did not claim the attack in the statement.

It’s unclear what the group is referring to, but regional media reports emerged after the drone strike confusing the location US soldiers were killed.The militia vowed that US presence in the region would be eradicated and warned of a “heavy price for each day that passes without their withdrawal.”

In the statement, the group called on the US to “learn the lesson” and “depart immediately,” emphasizing that failure to do so would result in a “heavy price.”

“Your barracks and bases know very well that we do as we say…[the US] must learn the lesson and leave today before tomorrow,” the statement added.

The United States has carried out retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militias in the past, including one earlier this month in Baghdad that killed a senior Al-Nujaba commander.