Over the next 60 days, roughly 1,000 troops will deploy to the Mediterranean Sea to build a floating platform where cargo ships can offload aid onto smaller military vessels, which will transfer them to a causeway attached to the beach, where trucks can pick it up and distribute it within Gaza, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.

“The concept that is being planned involves the presence of U.S. military personnel on military vessels offshore, but does not require U.S. military personnel to go ashore,” Ryder said.

President Joe Biden first announced the effort on Thursday night during the State of the Union Address.

The capability, dubbed Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore, has most recently been used during Exercise Talisman Sabre, Ryder said, an annual event based in Australia.

The modular causeway will be assembled offshore and driven to the beach, where it will be anchored ashore.

Biden outlines military plans to build port in Gaza for aid

The Pentagon is identifying units to deploy to the Mediterranean to start construction, he added, which will include soldiers from the 7th Transportation Brigade at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.

What remains to be hammered out is how U.S. Central Command will be able to protect both the offshore pier and the causeway itself from attacks by Hamas, though Ryder said Israel is part of the planning process and could provide security through its own forces.

“If Hamas truly does care about the Palestinian people, then again, one would hope that this international mission to deliver aid to people who need it would be able to happen and unhindered,” Ryder said.

The causeway has the potential to increase the amount of aid flowing into Gaza by several orders of magnitude, supplementing trucks arriving daily through the border with Israel, as well as ongoing air drops by the U.S. military.

The U.S. carried out its fourth drop of aid via C-130 Hercules on Friday, Ryder said. Each plane carries about the same amount of aid as a truck does over land. Though at points during the Israel-Hamas war, up to 200 aid trucks drove into Gaza daily, the Pentagon said Monday that the pace has dropped to 100 or fewer trucks a day.

The fight in Gaza will be hell, military experts in urban combat say

The temporary port has the potential to pick up some of the slack, Jonathan Lord, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Military Times on Friday, but with the same distribution concerns as aid arriving over land.

“How do you get aid not just onshore, but then securely distributed, such that it goes to everyone who needs it, and isn’t otherwise blocked in by Hamas insurgents, criminal gangs, vigilantes or others that might be taking advantage of emerging security vacuums?” he said.

Non-government organizations, the United Nations and other regional partners could be tapped to accept and distribute the aid ashore, Ryder said, though those details aren’t finalized.

Another issue is the inspection process for aid, which has slowed down the flow in land shipments.

“If you ask, the Israelis would argue that they, in fact, are not the bottleneck. They are inspecting more trucks than are actually going in on a day-to-day basis,” Lord said. “And when you ask them to what do they attribute that delta, they would say that the groups operating in Gaza don’t have enough drivers.”

Others, including two U.S senators, say Israel’s “cumbersome” and “arbitrary” inspection process is holding things up, comments the lawmakers made after a trip to Egypt to observe the Rafah border crossing in January.

“So that poses a question: Is, in fact, the problem one of a deficit of aid or deficit of aid distribution?” Lord said. “Likely, we’re going to find out, because if you can bring containerships worth of aid up to Gaza, you’re going to find out very quickly what your logistical supply line and your interior lines look like, and whether you have the capacity to effectively distribute it, in pretty short order.”

In any case, Lord said, the U.S. will continue to pressure the Israeli government to ease restrictions on incoming aid, as well as open up more land crossings, as Biden mentioned in his speech Thursday night.

Army Gen. Michael Kurilla told lawmakers on March 7 that he would “love” to have the Navy deploy more directed-energy arms capable of downing drones. Having supplemental directed energy on hand, he added, would also mean expending fewer U.S. missiles, which can cost millions of dollars a pop. Iranian drones being funneled to extremist groups can cost thousands of dollars each.

“The bigger concern is if you start talking about swarms. We need to continue to invest in things like high-power microwave to be able to counter a drone swarm that is coming at you,” Kurilla said during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington. “Nothing is 100%. At some point the law of statistics will come up. You have to have a layered defense.”

High-energy lasers and microwave weapons are capable of zapping overhead threats in ways dissimilar to traditional munitions and at a fraction of the cost. Lasers can fire at the speed of light and punch holes through material, while microwaves can fry electronics at a distance, rendering tech obsolete. Both are considered a critical element of layered defense, or having multiple countermeasures ready to thwart different threats in different situations.

The Defense Department has for decades pitched money into directed-energy weapons, an average $1 billion annually in the past three years, according to the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog.

Amid Red Sea clashes, Navy leaders ask: Where are our ship lasers?

At least 31 directed-energy initiatives are underway across the department, with some more mature than others. Among them are Lockheed Martin’s High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS, installed aboard the Navy destroyer Preble in 2022, and Epirus’ Leonidas, delivered to the Army in 2023 in furtherance of its Indirect Fire Protection Capability.

Bringing such systems to fruition — let alone mass production — has proven tricky. Aside from their technological complexity, laser- and microwave-based weaponry demand precious components and materials such as germanium and gallium.

Kurilla on Wednesday said the Army “sent us some directed-energy mobile short-range air defense” that are being experimented with. He provided no details about initial results. The service dispatched four Stryker-mounted 50-kilowatt laser prototypes in February, Breaking Defense reported.

Militants across the Greater Middle East have in recent months conducted more than 175 attacks on U.S. and allied forces. A drone strike in Jordan, at the Tower 22 installation near al-Tanf garrison, killed three troops in January. A Houthi missile attack on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden this month killed three crew members, as well, and forced an evacuation of the vessel.

“This is not the same central region as last year,” Kurilla said. “Iran’s expansive network of proxies is equipped with advanced, sophisticated weaponry, and threatens some of the most vital terrain in the world with global and U.S. implications.”

“Several” of the 173 attacks by Iran-backed militias would have injured or killed troops, if not for fortunate snags, CENTCOM’s commander, Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Kurilla’s comments Thursday reinforced the harrowing nature of some of these attacks to a degree not previously disclosed.

“Incidents where [an air drone] is coming into a base, hit another object, got caught up in a netting, or other incidents where, had they hit the appropriate target that they were targeting, it would have injured or killed service members,” he said.

Between Oct. 17 and Feb. 5, the majority of the attacks did not result in any injuries, as the militias only successfully struck U.S. troops a handful of times.

Still, three U.S. troops were killed on Jan. 28 in a drone attack on a U.S. base in Jordan known as Tower 22 and nearly 200 more have been injured.

Pentagon press officials have said repeatedly over recent months that most of the militia mortars, missiles and drones missed their intended targets, but they have not mentioned any close calls.

“So I think it’s important that while we did see a spate of attacks against our forces, they were largely not successful with minor damage to infrastructure,” Sabrina Singh told reporters in December.

January’s fatal attack on Tower 22 ramped up the Pentagon’s response.

“The impact of those [attacks] on our bases have not been significant until what happened at Tower 22,” Singh said last month.

After Jordan attack, Pentagon weighs options to bolster base security

Asked whether any military measures could have prevented those attacks, Kurilla pointed to eight U.S. strikes in Syria and Iraq designed to target militia leadership and destroy stored weapons.

What would really help, he added, would be for Congress to pass a $118 billion national security appropriation introduced last year, specifically to field more equipment to detect and shoot down air drones.

“I have $531 million in counter-[drone] technology that I need to get forward into the theater, that will save lives,” he said.

Readers are dubious about information posted to social media and confident in their ability to spot disinformation — but they don’t have faith in their neighbors or in politicians to do the same, the results said. In a test designed to see whether readers could differentiate between real and false information online, about 90% succeeded.

While most respondents called out false claims about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol being a “PsyOp,” or psychological operation carried out by the government, there were still hundreds who answered that the claim was credible, said Scott Parrott, a professor in the journalism department at the University of Alabama who helped put together the questionnaire.

“What the results are telling me is that they’re skeptical,” Parrott said. “They’re skeptical of news media, they’re skeptical of politicians and they’re skeptical of social media.”

However, a “disturbing” number of people still indicated support for the most extreme principles of QAnon and the “Great Replacement” theory — conspiracies that have prompted violence in recent years, researchers said.

Military Times and the University of Alabama conducted the survey with Military Veterans in Journalism to discern how readers perceived disinformation and extremist beliefs ahead of the November presidential election. More than 2,400 members of the military community participated, including veterans, service members, contractors and family members. Their political ideologies were split: one-fourth identified as Republicans, 14% as Democrats and 52% as Independents.

Most readers could spot disinformation

The World Economic Forum declared disinformation as the most severe risk over the next two years, writing in its annual report in January that the spread of false information could undermine the legitimacy of newly elected governments across the globe and result in violent protests, hate crimes and terrorism.

Researchers are already seeing instances of Russian interference in the U.S. this year, including a coordinated effort around the Texas-Mexico border crisis to amplify calls for a civil war, according to Kyle Walter, head of research at Logically, a British tech company that uses artificial intelligence to monitor disinformation around the world. Walter said Russia is likely to increase its spread of falsehoods in the run-up to the November election, likely focusing on immigration and the U.S. economy.

“The perception at times is that Russia is seeking to help one candidate win an election over another candidate,” Walter said. “What they’re really trying to do is create chaos and make people question the process and validity of the democratic process and the integrity of the election.”

Election deniers are specifically recruiting veterans and service members this year to exploit their social capital and bring legitimacy to the cause, argued Human Rights First, a nonprofit human rights organization. In a report, the nonprofit urged veterans to be wary of calls to “restore election integrity” or “catch the cheaters in real time” and instead leverage their credibility to counter conspiracies about the democratic process.

In the survey, 57% of Military Times readers said they had personally been targeted with disinformation, and another 23% were unsure. They believe disinformation is spread mostly by malicious groups seeking power, followed by the news media, politicians and independent actors.

“It’s a bad sign that so many people have been targeted, and a good sign that so many people recognize at least part of the time when they’ve been targeted,” said Rachel Goldwasser, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

When asked about who’s responsible for stopping disinformation, 87% of respondents said U.S. adults as individuals bear that burden. Of the respondents, 73% said members of the mainstream media also share responsibility, and about half think government and community leaders, academics and social media companies should help stop the spread of disinformation. Only 17% said foreign government agencies are responsible for stopping it.

Overwhelmingly, Military Times readers said they could identify disinformation — about 92% were confident they could spot it. They generally believe their friends and family members can identify disinformation, too. About 64% think their friends could identify it, and 61% think their families can.

Just over half of respondents said veterans as a population can identify disinformation, but they were less confident in politicians and people in the towns where they live. About 42% think politicians can discern real and false information, and 30% think their neighbors can tell the difference.

“It’s common for people to overestimate their ability to identify disinformation,” said Wendy Via, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

Parrott described that as the “third-person effect,” referring to a theory coined in the 1980s that states individuals perceive others as being more influenced by mass-media messages than they are.

“It’s almost as if you think better of yourself, like ‘I’m not affected. I can figure it out. I can parse it,’” Parrott said. “But when it comes to family or friends, they say, ‘They can parse it, too, but not as well,’ and then it gets to townsfolk and they say, ‘No, they can’t.’”

The survey put readers to the test. It asked respondents to identify several posts on X, formerly Twitter, as being real or false information. Many of them were correct with their responses, but there was confusion among hundreds about what was real or false.

Via, who has conducted extensive research on disinformation and extremism, said voluntary surveys were a helpful way to understand people’s thinking, but it was important to take into account the demographics of who responded.

“For the folks who are willing to sit down and take a survey online, it’s usually because they have something to say,” Via said.

Of the respondents in this survey, 86% were men, 92% were white, 49% had earned master’s degrees and 68% had completed combat deployments. Participants were spread across the U.S., but the highest number of people, about 30%, were located in the Southeast. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and National Guard were represented in the pool of respondents, with the highest concentration — about 37% — serving in the Army. The average length of their military service was 19 years.

A concerning embrace of the Great Replacement

To determine whether disinformation had influenced readers, survey organizers asked for their beliefs about various extremist groups and prominent conspiracy theories. While most respondents reject key tenets of QAnon and the Great Replacement theory, those who do agree still amounted to a “disturbing” number, said Freddy Cruz, a researcher with the nonprofit Western States Center, a nonprofit that monitors political extremism in the U.S.

The Great Replacement theory is a baseless idea that lenient immigration policies are being designed to replace the power and culture of white people in the U.S. The survey asked respondents how strongly they agree or disagree with the notion that a group of people in the U.S. is trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants and people of color who share their political views.

While 1,770 people completely or mostly disagree with that notion, 438 respondents, or 18%, said they mostly agree, and 223 people, or 9%, completely agree.

“There seems to be some embrace of the Great Replacement narrative, which has been linked to several violent incidents in the U.S.,” Cruz said. “That’s one of the things that stood out to me as one of the more disturbing aspects of the survey.”

The conspiracy theory went from fringe to mainstream in the past couple of years, as conservative media outlets and some elected officials have amplified the message, Cruz said. The theory fueled racist violence and motivated multiple mass shootings, including the 2022 killing of 10 people in Buffalo, New York, and a shooting in El Paso, Texas, that left 23 people dead in 2019.

A poll organized by the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2022 found that one-third of Americans believe the Great Replacement theory. The findings from Military Times and the University of Alabama were on par with a similar poll conducted by the federally funded think tank RAND Corp. in 2023, which found that 29% of veterans believe it.

“The responses for ‘completely agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ with the Great Replacement theory were extremely high,” said Goldwasser, who has studied militia groups for nearly a decade. “This is a theory that was really created and used by white supremacists, so the idea that it’s moved into the mainstream to the point where Army veterans believe it is alarming.”

When asked about their thoughts on Nazis, 83% of survey respondents indicated they think the group is a threat to national security — a figure that surprised Cruz because of the embrace of the Great Replacement theory.

“In the survey, it looks like people overwhelmingly agree that white supremacy is bad, Nazism is bad, but then there’s a smaller group of people who seem to actually embrace Great Replacement, and it’s a weird discrepancy,” Cruz said. “I think it speaks to the GOP doing an excellent job of dissociating the theory from white supremacist beliefs.”

Another cause for concern was the acceptance of QAnon, Goldwasser said. QAnon is an umbrella term for several conspiracy theories that falsely allege a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles run the world. Only 2% of respondents said they completely agree and 7% mostly agree with the theory, but Goldwasser argued those amounts were concerning based on how the question was posed.

Respondents were asked whether they agreed with the idea that the government, media and financial world in the U.S. were “controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation.”

“The fact that people made it all the way to the end of that sentence and agreed with every single one of those statements is disturbing in the grand scheme of things,” Goldwasser said. “It really got to who the true believers were.”

Other surveys over the past few years have tried to ascertain how many U.S. adults overall believe in the QAnon theories. A poll by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2021 found that 15% believe it, and a poll by Yahoo in 2020 pegged acceptance of the theories at 7%.

Where readers get their information

Respondents turned to local news outlets most for accurate information. About 77% of people said they trust their local news either “a lot” or “some.” However, local news is facing a crisis. About one-fourth of local newspapers in the U.S. have shut down in the past 15 years, creating news deserts and driving more people to social media, where disinformation is rampant, according to research from the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life.

Among the Military Times readers surveyed, 59% trust national news outlets, and 29% of respondents trust the news they received through word of mouth. Social media garnered the least support, with only 14% of people trusting the information they received there. Nearly 50% said they didn’t trust information from social media at all.

The lack of trust in social media surprised Parrott, who expected more people to turn to sites like Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram for their news. A study from Pew Research Center at the end of 2023 found that 19% of U.S. adults overall often get their news from social media, and 31% sometimes do.

“They were skeptical of news, especially on social media, which I think is really interesting,” Parrott said. “I expected more people to be getting their news there.”

Of the survey respondents who do get their news from social media, they most often turned to Facebook, followed by YouTube and X, the survey found. For people who do get their news on those platforms, Parrott suggested several questions they should try to answer to determine whether information is true, including: Does the person posting have a headshot and actual name? How long has the account been active? What other sources can you consult? Is the source objective or biased? Does the post share information that target a social or political group?

“Who’s the source? Where’d they get the information from? Are they real? Has it been confirmed? These are little things you can check,” Parrott said. “If it elicits strong emotions from you or others, if it’s enraging, that’s a sign you might want to check that out.”

Instead of social media, 53% of respondents said they get their information most often from news websites, followed by 37% who turn to television news the most.

Goldwasser warned that it’s unclear what respondents might’ve meant by “news websites.” Fake news sites have flooded the internet over the past several years and have increased in number since the advent of generative AI, which allows users to quickly create content to post online. NewsGuard, which tracks misinformation, found 725 AI-generated fake news sites in operation as of last month.

“This is something I have seen a number of times in a variety of circumstances, where people think it’s a news website, but actually, that might not be accurate,” Goldwasser said. “I think it evokes almost a sigh of relief, like, ‘OK, they get their news from news websites. That’s great.’ But actually, it might not be quite as great as it sounds.”

The survey asked about 14 news outlets specifically, including a few that skewed conservative or liberal, based on the media bias chart from the media watchdog Ad Fontes. Respondents could indicate either that they trusted the outlet, didn’t trust it or didn’t know how to feel about it.

The outlet with the most outright distrust was Fox News, with 57% of people saying they don’t trust it. About 30% said they do trust Fox News.

The Daily Caller garnered the fewest number of people who said they trusted it. Only 5% of respondents trust its news, while 48% don’t trust it and the rest don’t know how to feel about it.

Army Times, which distributed the survey through its morning newsletter, was predictably the most trusted, with 64% of people responding that they trust news found on the website. CBS followed with about 40% of respondents indicating they trust the outlet. About 27% trust USA Today, 31% trust CNN, 22% trust MSNBC and 37% trust The New York Times.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

The military is starting to take notice: a wide-ranging Army special operations study released in 2023 highlighted barriers to service, from ill-fitting body armor to “benevolent sexism” keeping women on the sidelines.

In September 2023, the congressionally appointed Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services unanimously approved a recommendation, still pending, that the Secretary of Defense should establish a working group focused on women in the special operations community “to provide strategic oversight on and direction of current integration plans and challenges, metrics, lessons learned, and best practices.”

This, the committee wrote in its recommendation, “would enhance recruitment, integration, growth, and retention of women in SOF.”

Women in Army SOF resorted to buying their own armor, study finds

Some women who have served in elite and specialized military roles told Military Times they applauded these efforts. But they also pointed to a factor in the integration of women into special operations that was harder to manage: time.

Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain and co-chair of the board of directors at Service Women’s Action Network, said it was instructive to look at the integration of women into naval fighter aviation roles, a process that began in 1994.

While women still remain dramatically underrepresented in the fighter community, the presence of a female fighter pilot in a ready room isn’t as novel as it once was.

“I think a lot of it is a function of time and acclimation on the part of the men and the women,” Manning said of integrating women into new roles. “The women want to feel welcomed and supported. The men want to feel like, this isn’t somebody that’s slipping in here who really can’t cut the mustard.”

For naval aviation in particular, the process of cultural integration took some 15 years, Manning said.

The 1991 Tailhook scandal, in which dozens of women reported being sexually assaulted by fighter pilots at a professional symposium in Las Vegas, revealed an underlying culture of misogyny and disrespect for women.

Beyond that, though, Manning said she appreciated that developing trust in those entering new roles took time.

“You’ve got to understand it’s going to take time, and you’ve got to let them get whatever beefs they have off their chest,” Manning said of male service members skeptical that women could cut it in new roles. “And you’ve got to show them that not only can women do it, but it’s even better when you do have [them] around … because they bring an extra dimension.”

Because confidence in the abilities of military team members is so critical, Manning emphasized the care special operations leaders needed to take not to lower qualifying standards or to be perceived as doing so.

But, she said, there were also steps the military might consider to lower risk to women attempting to make it in special operations.

Attempting to enter a training pipeline with a high attrition rate ― no woman has made it completely through training to become a Marine Raider or Navy SEAL, for example ― carries the risk of consuming valuable months in service that could be used for career advancement and missing out on opportunities to lead.

Manning didn’t offer a specific proposal about how to incentivize women to attempt special operations, but said it was something leaders should keep in mind.

“If [women] are thinking, maybe I want to do this as a career, it might not be their best choice,” Manning said.

Lisa Jaster, one of the first three women to graduate from Army Ranger School in 2015 and the first female Reserve soldier to do so, told Military Times the physicality needed to fill operator roles takes many women out of the running from the start.

A competitor in Brazilian jiu-jitsu who worked in offshore construction management prior to earning her Ranger tab, Jaster argues that girls and young women are disadvantaged by lower physical standards during physical training in their school years: such as hangs instead of pullups, and pushups from their knees instead of from their toes.

“It’s, ‘Hey, if we’re being trained on one set of standards, and then we’re tested on another set of standards, I’m just not going to line up for the test,’” Jaster said. “Why would I?”

In addition to more equitable and challenging physical training prior to the military, Jaster said she would like to see more effective recruiting among the young women who do have the physical acumen to succeed.

While the military services have said they do recruit among female athletes and sports programs, lots of promising candidates are still slipping through the cracks, she said.

“I actually trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with this young 17-year-old high school senior,” Jaster said. “She’s as hard as woodpecker lips; she’s as tough as can be. And nobody’s talking to her about the military.”

Jaster, who was 37 and a mother of two when she graduated Ranger School, said her advice to women considering the challenge of special operations is that they are not alone, or “weird” for their interest in the field.

“You might not find people like you at the corner store,” she said. “But when I went to Ranger School, there were 19 of us there that were all driven. We weren’t competitive; we were sisters in arms. And we would support each other to this day.”

According to U.S. officials, American and British fighter jets hit sites in eight locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and air defense systems. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide early details of an ongoing military operation.

All the Houthi-US Navy incidents in the Middle East (that we know of)

This is the fourth time that the U.S. and British militaries have conducted a combined operation against the Houthis since Jan. 12. But the U.S. has also been carrying out almost daily strikes to take out Houthi targets, including incoming missiles and drones aimed at ships, as well as weapons that were prepared to launch.

The U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is currently in the Red Sea, officials said.

“The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “We will continue to make clear to the Houthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks.”

The Houthis denounced the “US-British aggression” and vowed to keep up its military operation in response. “The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm that they will confront the US-British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arabian Seas in defense of our country, our people and our nation,” it said in a statement.

The U.S., U.K., and other allies said in a statement the “necessary and proportionate strikes specifically targeted 18 Houthi targets across 8 locations in Yemen” that also included underground storage facilities, radar and a helicopter.

U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said RAF Typhoon jets engaged in “precision strikes” aimed at degrading Houthi drones and launchers. Shapps said it came after “severe Houthi attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including against the British-owned MV Islander and the MV Rubymar, which forced the crew to abandon ship.” It’s the fourth time Britain has joined in the U.S.-led strikes.

The strikes have support from the wider coalition, which includes Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

President Joe Biden and other senior leaders have repeatedly warned that the U.S. won’t tolerate the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping. But the counterattacks haven’t appeared to diminish the Houthis’ campaign against shipping in the region, which the militants say is over Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but we will once again reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in the face of continued threats,” said the Saturday statement.

The Houthis have launched at least 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, and the pace has picked up in recent days.

“We’ve certainly seen in the past 48, 72 hours an increase in attacks from the Houthis,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a briefing Thursday. And she acknowledged that the Houthis have not been deterred.

“We never said we’ve wiped off the map all of their capabilities,” she told reporters. “We know that the Houthis maintain a large arsenal. They are very capable. They have sophisticated weapons, and that’s because they continue to get them from Iran.”

There have been at least 32 U.S. strikes in Yemen over the past month and a half; a few were conducted with allied involvement. In addition, U.S. warships have taken out dozens of incoming missiles, rockets and drones targeting commercial and other Navy vessels.

Earlier Saturday, the destroyer USS Mason downed an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-held areas in Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said, adding that the missile was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a U.S.-flagged, owned, and operated chemical and oil tanker.

The U.S. attacks on the Houthis have targeted more than 120 launchers, more than 10 surface-to-air-missiles, 40 storage and support building, 15 drone storage building, more than 20 unmanned air, surface and underwater vehicles, several underground storage areas and a few other facilities.

The rebels’ supreme leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced this past week an “escalation in sea operations” conducted by his forces as part of what they describe as a pressure campaign to end Israel’s war on Hamas.

But while the group says the attacks are aimed at stopping that war, the Houthis’ targets have grown more random, endangering a vital waterway for cargo and energy shipments traveling from Asia and the Middle East onward to Europe.

During normal operations, about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time. While the Houthi attacks have only actually struck a small number of vessels, the persistent targeting and near misses that have been shot down by the U.S. and allies have prompted shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red Sea.

Instead, they have sent them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope — a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The threats also have led the U.S. and its allies to set up a joint mission where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships as they travel between the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

In Thursday’s attack in the Gulf of Aden, the Houthis fired two missiles at a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander, according to Central Command said. A European naval force in the region said the attack sparked a fire and wounded a sailor on board the vessel, though the ship continued on its way.

Central Command launched attacks on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Friday, destroying seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that the military said were prepared to launch toward the Red Sea.

Central Command also said Saturday that a Houthi attack on a Belize-flagged ship on Feb. 18 caused an 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick and the. military warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer, according to a Central Command statement.

The Associated Press, relying on satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the stricken vessel, reported Tuesday that the vessel was leaking oil in the Red Sea.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Saturday called for other countries and maritime-protection organizations to quickly address the oil slick and avert “a significant environmental disaster.

Separately, in Yemen, strikes on Feb. 3 took out more than 100 missiles and missile-launchers, “plus numerous communication capabilities, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, coastal radars, air surveillance capabilities and weapons storage areas,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters during a briefing Thursday.

“I will repeat again that the U.S. does not want escalation and that these strikes are directly in response to the actions by the Iranian-backed Houthis” in Yemen, Ryder said. “Again, however, we will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most vital waterways.”

The second phase of retaliation for the Tower 22 attack came on Wednesday, when the U.S. struck a vehicle in downtown Baghdad, killing Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Baqir al-Saadi, who was “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region,” Ryder said.

After Jordan attack, Pentagon weighs options to bolster base security

The Pentagon’s initial assessments have determined no civilians were injured in the strike, and that al-Saadi was the car’s only occupant, he added.

Ryder said the Pentagon is aware of reports that one civilian was killed in the Feb. 2 attacks, but said U.S. Central Command is still assessing whether the claim is true.

CENTCOM has launched four more strikes against Houthi missile sites and drones targeting the Red Sea since Saturday.

Early February’s barrage against Iran-backed groups in the Middle East is the U.S.’s biggest cluster of strikes since mid-October, when militias began launching near-daily attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, followed by the Houthi rebels’ attacks in the Red Sea.

The group was present at the Super Bowl Experience on Wednesday, an event that precedes the game every year and allows fans to get autographs from National Football League players, shop for merchandise and snap photos with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. There, Vet the Vote organizers were given a platform to share the message that U.S. elections are safe and effective — and have the support of tens of thousands of veterans and military families who have participated in the process in recent years.

During a time when misinformation is eroding trust in U.S. elections, the group believes veterans are the key to restoring confidence.

“We’re seeing some cracks in the consensus around democracy here in the United States,” said Ben Keiser, a Marine Corps veteran and co-founder of We the Veterans. “So what we really need is an effective messenger to break through all of that who’s seen as credible and trustworthy by all of America, and that is veterans and military families. They’re able to cut through division, build bridges and catalyze social cohesion.”

Distrust in U.S. elections reached a climax in 2020, when former President Donald Trump and his supporters made unsubstantiated claims that he lost because of widespread voter fraud.

Leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, distrust in the process was still rampant. According to a survey by the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research, about 65% of Democrats and 48% of Republicans said they trusted U.S. elections before the midterms. That trust rose after the midterm elections to 83% among Democrats but dropped to 46% among Republicans, the report found.

We the Veterans organized its first Vet the Vote campaign in 2022 and recruited more than 63,500 veterans and military family members to work the polls. The volunteers filled about half of the shortage of election workers that year.

“The reason that we’re doing the work we’re doing and getting so much support is that the vast majority of veterans and the military community just wants to see what’s best for the country,” said Ellen Gustafson, co-founder of We the Veterans.

Seeing similar levels of distrust in the voting process in the lead-up to the presidential election, as well as increased threats toward election workers, We the Veterans quickly set its sights on 2024.

According to research from the University of Nebraska, threats against public officials increased from 2013 to 2023, and elected officials — as well as people who run elections — were the second most-targeted category. A report by the Brennan Center for Justice found that more than half of the people who manage elections in the U.S. are concerned that the threats will harm the retention and recruitment of poll workers.

Ahead of this week’s launch of Vet the Vote at the Super Bowl, We the Veterans was already at work to fortify voters against election misinformation. Members of the nonprofit traveled to five states in 2023, launching local campaigns to explain the election process and encourage veterans and military family members to get involved.

We the Veterans is now working with the NFL — and using its massive platform — to reach its goal. The NFL is one of 36 groups that comprise the Vet the Vote coalition.

“Particularly during this time of political polarization and partisan divisions, the league wanted to leverage our platform to promote the fundamental values that bind us together as a country,” Ken Edmonds, a lobbyist for the NFL, said this week on the We the Veterans podcast.

The NFL also runs its own initiative, NFL Votes, which encourages fans to become informed and effective voters. Through that campaign, NFL players have shared personal stories about voting.

“People look up to NFL players, but we also know people look up to and respect people who have served our country,” said Anna Isaakson, the league’s vice president of social responsibility. “There’s no better group to do this.”

While in Las Vegas this week, Vet the Vote organizers are expected to give away two tickets to Super Bowl 58 to a local election volunteer.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

The strike came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. A crowd gathered as emergency response teams picked through the wreckage. Security forces closed off the heavily guarded Green Zone, where a number of diplomatic compounds are located, amid calls for protesters to storm the U.S. embassy.

Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said that a senior Kataib Hezbollah commander was targeted in a U.S. strike on Wednesday in Iraq. They were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two officials with Iran-backed militias in Iraq said that one of the three killed was Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s operations in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to journalists.

The strike came amid roiling tensions in the region and days after the U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan in late January.

The U.S. has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the attack in Jordan, and officials have said they suspect Kataib Hezbollah in particular of leading it.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has regularly claimed strikes on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, saying that they are in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in its war in Gaza that has killed 27,707 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Kataib Hezbollah had said in a statement that it was suspending attacks on American troops to avoid “embarrassing the Iraqi government” after the strike in Jordan, but others have vowed to continue fighting.

On Sunday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed a drone attack on a base housing U.S. troops in eastern Syria killed six fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group allied with the United States.

The latest surge in the regional conflict came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected terms proposed by Hamas for a hostage-release agreement that would lead to a permanent cease-fire, vowing to continue the war until “absolute victory.”

Also on Wednesday, the media office of the Houthi rebels in Yemen reported two airstrikes in Ras Issa area in Salif district in Hodeida province.

Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Ali Jabar in Baghdad and Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

While troops are more than likely to stay put at the remote outpost on the Syrian border, officials are mulling options for upgrading air defenses at Tower 22 and other small outposts across the Middle East.

“I’m not going to go into those conversations, or what changing our posture looks like, but that’s absolutely something that is being discussed,” spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told Military Times.

Singh did not say whether some of those changes could take place before CENTCOM has finished its review, as attacks continue.

In the weeks following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and amid the bombing campaign Israel launched in retaliation on Gaza, the U.S. moved thousands of troops, some ground and some on ship, to the region, in hopes of preventing other groups from stirring up more conflict.

Those mobilizations included a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and multiple Patriot missile air defense battalions to shoot down drones and missiles.

For much of the past six months, those air defenses have been successful, preventing a “majority” of the 168 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and now Jordan, Singh said.

That includes 67 in Iraq, 100 in Syria and one in Jordan, with more than 80 U.S. injuries among them.

“Not that we don’t take those seriously,” she added. “We absolutely do. But the impact of those [attacks] on our bases have not been significant until what happened at Tower 22.”

Early unconfirmed reports have suggested that the drone was confused for a friendly aerial vehicle that had been due to return around the same time, in the early morning hours of Jan. 28.

Drone that killed US troops may have been mistaken for friendly

Or it may have been an issue of Tower 22′s air defenses. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the base only had electronic-jamming equipment that missed the drone because it was flying too low.

Pentagon officials have declined to comment on either theory, citing CENTCOM’s ongoing investigation into the attack.

Increasing security measures could be the most feasible option for protecting troops in the Middle East for now, as thousands remain deployed and teamed with local forces as part of a mission to prevent the resurgence of the Islamist terrorist group ISIS.

“Across Iraq and Syria and Jordan, the mission of these service members is the defeat-ISIS mission,” Singh said. “So moving our troops and our service members into different areas takes away from the mission.”

Militias struck twice in Syria, once on Saturday at Mission Support Site Euphrates and on Sunday near Mission Support Site Green Village, the Pentagon confirmed on Monday, in addition to a Houthi missile fired within hours of U.S.-U.K. strikes on their sites in Yemen.

“So they have capability,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. “It would not be surprising to anyone if they attempt to conduct attacks in the future, but when they do, again, we’ll take appropriate action, as we have been doing.”

The Pentagon on Monday was still awaiting analysis on just how much the U.S. strikes on Iraq and joint U.S.-U.K. strikes on Yemen degraded these groups’ abilities to keep attacking.

In total, the U.S. hit 85 targets at seven sites in Iraq and Syria on Friday, followed by a joint operation on Saturday that hit 36 Houthi targets at 13 sites in Yemen.

“I think it is fair to conclude that there are likely were casualties associated with these strikes,” Ryder said.

In a statement Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were just the first phase of retaliation for a Jan. 28 attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers.

Fatal drone attack similar to recent incidents in Iraq and Syria

It was the first deadly attack out of roughly 170 that started coming almost back-to-back in mid-October, after the U.S. moved assets and troops to the Middle East in an attempt to deter a broader conflict erupting in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

At the same time, Yemen’s Houthi movement has been firing missiles and drones into the Red Sea, targeting commercial shipping vessels and coming within shooting distance of U.S. Navy ships.

The Pentagon has insisted that the barrage of attacks, and the U.S.’s many retaliatory strikes, don’t amount to war.

“But to be clear, our goal is not to ― okay, game on, let’s just do this and go, you know, full scale war against Iranian proxy groups in Iraq and Syria,” Ryder said. “That’s not what we’re there for.”

That’s according to new data presented to the House Foreign Affairs Committee by the veteran-led nonprofit organization No One Left Behind, which called on Congress Wednesday to break the backlog by creating new pathways to safety, push for more visa slots, and better partner with the array of all-volunteer veteran groups and coalitions created to advocate for allies in danger.

Representatives from eight such organizations testified before Foreign Affairs’ Oversight and Accountability subcommittee, painting horrifying pictures of torture and brutalism in Taliban reprisals following U.S. withdrawal in 2021.

Subcommittee chairman Brian Mast, a Florida Republican and former Army Ranger who lost both legs to an improvised explosive device while fighting in Afghanistan, had a message to the veteran witnesses and any other veterans who might have been watching: “You’re justified in your rage” about the Afghans left behind.

Help for Afghan allies included in Senate’s security supplemental plan

“This roundtable is not group therapy to get over a war that is, to some, over,” Mast said. “The war is clearly not over for the veterans who are fighting internal battles, and for our allies who depend on us.”

Elizabeth Lynn, a veteran of the Air Force and Navy Reserves who deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 relayed accounts of targeted public executions, documented on cellphone videos in which men identified as U.S. allies were dragged through the streets, beaten to death with rocks and forced to drink acid.

“The Special Operations veteran who received these videos, and who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, describes this retaliation as the most horrific carnage he has seen in his life,” Lynn told the subcommittee. “What will this veteran tell his children when they ask him if they should follow in his footsteps and join the military?”

In an interview ahead of the hearing, Lynn told Military Times she was still in daily contact with her former interpreter, who she said received chief of mission approval for a special immigrant visa more than a year ago, but continues to await final background checks. Special immigrant visas were created as a special, fast-track visa category for interpreters and U.S. military augments in Iraq and Afghanistan, but have nonetheless been bogged down with bureaucratic process and quota limitations.

Of the 7,000 visa applications ― including special immigrant visas and other available pathways ― that Lynn said she’s tracking from former Afghan allies through her organization Operation Recovery, only 1% have been approved.

Thomas Kasza, a Green Beret and National Guardsman who worked in Afghanistan with the elite local partners who made up the Defense Department-contracted National Mine Reduction Group, said he was aware of six men who fought alongside the Green Berets against the Taliban and have been killed while awaiting a way out of Afghanistan. Kasza said he’d trusted these team members implicitly and recalled in particular an incident in which National Mine Reduction Group members had faced down Taliban fighters inside a dark subterranean tunnel.

“These guys undertook some tasks, which as an American would have been Silver Star, Medal of Honor, that kind of stuff,” Kasza told Military Times in an interview. “They just don’t get recognized for what they really did.”

Accounts like Lynn’s and Kasza’s, lawmakers said, refuted testimony from acting Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in October 2023 that officials hadn’t “seen a consistent pattern of those Afghans who worked and supported our efforts in Afghanistan being murdered by the Taliban.”

Andrew Sullivan, advocacy director at No One Left Behind, brought sobering statistics: When the organization surveyed 13,600 Afghans in December 2022 about their knowledge of reprisal killings among special immigrant visa candidates, it received 242 accounts. In one case he described, an interpreter who had successfully completed his visa interview in the Kabul embassy and was only waiting to pick it up was shot in front of his two children while shopping.

The single piece of legislation passed since August 2021, which authorized an additional 4,000 special immigration visas, did little, Sullivan said, to offset these Afghans’ feelings of abandonment.

Committee members, many of whom were military veterans who’d served in Afghanistan also addressed the high personal cost to the veterans in the room of their commitment to the cause of helping those left behind. Kasza told Military Times he’d taken his preliminary exam and been set to enroll in medical school when Kabul fell; he put those ambitions aside to found his organization, the 1208 foundation.

Rep. Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican and Green Beret who serves in the Army National Guard, recounted a story he’d heard about a veteran who exhausted his children’s education savings accounts and lost his marriage because he’d given so much to Afghans seeking help.

“But,” Waltz said, “He can’t not answer the phone.”

In addition to passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act, the widely supported legislation that would, among other things, expand special immigrant visa eligibility to more Afghans who helped Americans and require the Department of State to respond to congressional inquiries on special immigrant visa applications, the panelists advocated for greater transparency in the current processing system and changes, including perhaps more priority categories, which would allow applicants whose lives are at risk to flow through more quickly.

Panelists, including Amy Marden of the Moral Compass Federation, which helped to organize the event, urged the lawmakers to look for opportunities to lean on the expertise of organizations like theirs to assist in relocation and support of Afghani allies in some form of public-private partnership.

Kasza said the same was true for special immigrant visa vetting, where often, he said, endorsements from special operators who’d worked closely with the applicants for years seemed to be ignored.

“We can streamline this process,” he said, “If they actually listen to us and look at our bona fides.”

“We are prepared to deal with anything that any group or any country tries to come at us with,” said Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. Sullivan said Iran should expect “a swift and forceful response” if it — and not one of its proxies — “chose to respond directly” against the U.S.

Sullivan delivered the warnings during a series of interviews with TV news shows after the U.S. and Britain on Saturday struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen. The Iran-backed militants have fired on American and international interests repeatedly in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

An air assault Friday in Iraq and Syria targeted other Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend. The U.S. fired again at Houthi targets on Sunday.

“We cannot rule out that there will be future attacks from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria or from the Houthis,” Sullivan said. He said the president has told his commanders that “they need to be positioned to respond to further attacks as well.”

The U.S. has blamed the attack at the Tower 22 base in Jordan on Jan. 28 on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. Iran has tried to distance itself from the drone strike, saying the militias act independently of its direction.

Navy destroyers and jets took out at least 12 Houthi drones Friday

Biden “is not looking for a wider war,” Sullivan said, when questioned about the potential for strikes inside Iran that would expand the conflict in the volatile region. But when asked about the possibility of direct escalation by the Iranians, he said: “If they chose to respond directly to the United States, they would be met with a swift and forceful response from us.”

While pledging to respond in a “sustained way” to new assaults on Americans, Sullivan said he “would not describe it as some open-ended military campaign.”

Still, he said, “We intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked or our people are killed.”

There will be more steps taken, he said. “Some of those steps will be seen. Some may not be seen.”

The U.S. attack on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria hit more than 85 targets at seven locations. These included command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites and other facilities that were connected to the militias or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, the expeditionary unit that handles Tehran’s relationship with, and arming of, regional militias.

The Biden administration has so far appeared to stop short of directly targeting Iran or senior leaders of the Quds Force within its borders.

US begins strikes on militias in Iraq, Syria after fatal drone attack

The U.S. military does not have any confirmation at this time of civilian casualties from those strikes, Sullivan said. “What we do know is that the targets we hit were absolutely valid targets from the point of view of containing the weaponry and the personnel that were attacking American forces. So, we are confident in the targets that we struck.”

Some of the militias have been a threat to U.S. bases for years, but the groups intensified their assaults in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. More than 27,000 people have been killed by Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza, the territory’s Health Ministry has said,

The Houthis have conducted almost daily missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and they have made clear that they have no intention of scaling back their campaign despite a new international force to protect vessels in the vital waterway.

U.S. strikes overnight Sunday struck across six provinces of Yemen held by the Houthi rebels, including in Sanaa, the capital. The Houthis gave no assessment of the damage but the U.S. described hitting underground missile arsenals, launch sites and helicopters used by the rebels.

“These attacks will not discourage Yemeni forces and the nation from maintaining their support for Palestinians in the face of the Zionist occupation and crimes,” Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said. “The aggressors’ airstrikes will not go unanswered.”

Meanwhile, Iran warned the U.S. over potentially targeting two cargo ships in the Mideast long suspected of serving as forwarding operating bases for Iranian commandos. The statement from Iran on the Behshad and Saviz ships appeared to signal Tehran’s growing unease over the U.S. strikes across the region.

The ships are registered as commercial cargo ships with a Tehran-based company the U.S. Treasury has sanctioned as a front for the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. The Saviz, then later the Behshad, have loitered for years in the Red Sea off Yemen, suspected of serving as spy positions for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

In the video statement by Iran’s regular army, a narrator describes the vessels as “floating armories.” The narrator describes the Behshad as aiding an Iranian mission to “counteract piracy in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.” But Iran is not publicly known to have taken part in any of the recent campaigns against rising Somali piracy in the region off the back of the Houthi attacks.

Just before the new campaign of U.S. airstrikes began, the Behshad traveled south into the Gulf of Aden. It’s now docked in Djibouti in East Africa just off the coast from a Chinese military base in the country.

The statement ends with a warning overlaid with a montage of footage of U.S. warships and an American flag.

“Those engaging in terrorist activities against Behshad or similar vessels jeopardize international maritime routes, security and assume global responsibility for potential future international risks,” the video said.

The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet declined to comment over the threat.

The Saviz is now in the Indian Ocean near where the U.S. alleges Iranian drone attacks recently have targeted shipping.

President Joe Biden and other top U.S. leaders had been warning for days that America would strike back at the militias, and they made it clear it wouldn’t be just one hit but a “tiered response” over time. The officials confirming the initial strikes spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations not yet announced.

The strikes by manned and unmanned aircraft hit more than 85 targets, including command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites and other facilities. U.S. Central Command said the strikes used more than 125 precision munitions, and they were delivered by numerous aircraft, inlcuding long-range bombers flown from the United States. One official said B-1 bombers were used.

CENTCOM Statement on U.S. Strikes in Iraq and Syria

At 4:00 p.m. (EST) Feb. 02, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. U.S. military forces… pic.twitter.com/ZVx2uOQ1qD

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 2, 2024

The assault came came just hours after Biden and top defense leaders joined grieving families to watch as the remains of the three Army Reserve soldiers were returned to the U.S. at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

It was unclear what the next steps will be, or whether the days of U.S. warnings have sent militia members scattering into hiding, making it more difficult to detect and strike them. But it was evident that the recent statement released by Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the main Iran-backed militias, saying it was suspending attacks on American troops had no impact on the administration’s plans.

The U.S. strikes appeared to stop short of directly targeting Iran or senior leaders of the Revolutionary Guard Quds force within its borders. Iran has denied it was behind the Jordan attack.

In a statement this week, Kataib Hezbollah announced “the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government.” But Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the other major Iran-backed groups, vowed Friday to continue military operations against U.S. troops.

The U.S. has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the deadly attack in Jordan, but has not yet narrowed it down to a specific group. Kataeb Hezbollah is, however, a top suspect.

Some of the militias have been a threat to U.S. bases for years, but the groups intensified their assaults in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The war has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza and spilled across four other countries now. Iran-backed militia groups throughout the region have used the conflict to justify striking Israeli or U.S. interests, including threatening civilian commercial ships and U.S. warships with drones or missiles in almost daily exchanges.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that “this is a dangerous moment in the Middle East.” He added, “We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people. And we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose.”

“At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past,” Austin said.

As of Tuesday, Iran-backed militia groups had launched 166 attacks on U.S. military installations since Oct. 18, including 67 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and now one in Jordan, according to a U.S. military official. The last attack was Jan. 29 at at al-Asad airbase in Iraq, and there were no injuries or damage.

The U.S., meanwhile, has bolstered defenses at the base in Jordan that was attacked by the ran-backed militants on Sunday, according to a U.S. official.

And the Israeli military said its Arrow defense system intercepted a missile that approached the country from the Red Sea, raising suspicion it was launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The rebels did not immediately claim responsibility.

A U.S. official also said the military had taken additional self-defense strikes inside Yemen Friday against Houthi military targets deemed an imminent threat. Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, said that British and American forces conducted three strikes in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah, a Houthi stronghold.

While previous U.S. responses in Iraq and Syria have been more limited, the attack on Tower 22, as the Jordan outpost is known, and the deaths of the three service members has crossed a line, the official said.

That drone attack, which also injured more than 40 service members — largely Army National Guard — was the first to result in U.S. combat deaths from the Iran-backed militias since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. Tower 22 houses about 350 U.S. troops and sits near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border is only 6 miles (10 kilometers) away.

Also on Friday, the U.S. Treasury imposed new sanctions on a network of firms in Iran and Hong Kong that are accused of assisting Iran procure technology to make ballistic weapons and drones. And the U.S. hit six Iranian officials with sanctions for allegedly committing a series of malicious cyber activities against critical infrastructure in the U.S. and other nations.

Just a few hours before a planned “pep rally” Thursday, the gathering appeared much smaller than organizers first touted, comprising personal vehicles instead of the semi-trailer trucks used in promotional videos for the event. Organizers spent the first two days of the convoy dispelling confusion about routes and the intended destination, which is a town 20 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, rather than the border itself.

The convoy has been the subject of mockery from late-show hosts and has battled unclear intentions, with some organizers advertising it as a peaceful assembly of prayer, while others claim they’re responding to a call from ousted Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on X (formerly Twitter) to defend the border.

Leaders of the convoy, who have encouraged service members and veterans to join their cause, planned the roadtrip from Virginia to Texas this week — in addition to a series of rallies in Texas, Arizona and California — in response to a standoff between the Texas government and federal authorities over border security. As of Thursday afternoon, the group had raised nearly $160,000, which organizers said would be used for gas, permits and staging equipment.

While it was uncertain Thursday whether the planned events would meet the level of participation promised by organizers, the hype surrounding the movement was already proving to be a successful recruiting tool for fringe groups advocating for violence against migrants, multiple extremism experts said Thursday.

Experts from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, the Western States Center and Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights also warned that the attention garnered by the convoy was bringing tenets of the ”Great Replacement“ conspiracy theory into mainstream conversation.

The conspiracy contends that lenient immigration policies are being designed to replace the power and culture of white people in the U.S. The theory has been tied to multiple mass shootings over the past several years, including the 2022 killing of 10 people in Buffalo, New York, and a shooting in El Paso, Texas, that left 23 people dead in 2019.

“We’ve seen the white supremacist Proud Boys group, neo-Nazi active clubs and the Aryan Freedom Network all taking advantage of the standoff to push their propaganda and recruit new members,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

In social media posts reviewed by Military Times, various chapters of the Proud Boys in Ohio, Texas, North Carolina and Rhode Island had shared information about the convoy and encouraged its members to get involved. One post on Telegram claimed that a “confrontation was imminent” and another read, “Let’s do this grab your guns n let’s party.”

The Proud Boys romanticize a traditional, male-dominated version of Western culture, and the group is rooted in white nationalism and misogyny, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.

Dozens of its members were defendants in criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and four of its leaders, three of whom have military backgrounds, were sentenced to 15 or more years in prison for their involvement in the riot.

Despite the online calls for violence, organizers of the “Take Our Border Back” convoy insisted this week that their group would remain peaceful. In an update about the pep rally planned for Thursday night, organizers told participants to avoid bringing weapons or tactical gear. Organizers also warned of “infiltrators and provocateurs” who might be planning to disrupt their efforts but claimed they were prepared to intervene with such individuals.

Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, described the convoy as a “stunt” and said he was more concerned with the long-term effects of the event, such as bringing a sense of normality to far-right ideas.

“It may not have an impact this week, but this type of rhetoric about an ‘invasion’ and another Civil War have longer, broader implications for us as a nation,” Burghart said. “We’ve witnessed the bitter fruit of this type of rhetoric far too many times in this country. It’s time for America to stand united against such threats.”

The spread of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory has an effect on communities of color, argued Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, which advocates for immigration reform.

“It puts a target on people’s backs,” Cárdenas said.

To successfully counter the rhetoric about migrants, elected officials should publicly condemn vigilantism and pass legislation to improve the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, Burghart argued. As of Wednesday, Senate negotiators were struggling to finalize a bipartisan deal that included policy changes at the border. A key measure would allow the Department of Homeland Security to close the border if too many migrants were showing up with asylum claims. The bill faces opposition from House Republicans and Donald Trump.

The protest convoy arrived in Dripping Springs, Texas, on Wednesday night, where one organizer shared a photo of a small stage adorned with an “Appeal to Heaven” flag. The flag has been adopted in recent years by Christian Nationalists who see it as a rallying call to seek protection from God, rather than the government. The flag was present during the attack on the Capitol in 2021.

Organizers of the convoy planned to hold the pep rally Thursday night at a brewery in Dripping Springs. Next, the convoy is expected to travel on Friday morning to Quemado, where participants will hold a rally on Saturday.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

The troops, deployed in support of the anti-ISIS mission, are the latest in a back-to-back rotation of mostly National Guard units that have been providing support to both U.S. special operators and local forces who have been fighting ISIS since 2014.

“The injured Guard soldiers are from units based in Arizona, California, Kentucky and New York,” according to the Guard’s statement. “Twenty-seven were able to return to duty while 14 others continue to be evaluated for follow-on care, including one requiring medical evacuation from Jordan who is in stable condition.”

The Pentagon was not able to provide an updated number of troops injured as of Thursday.

Three Army Reservists were killed in Sunday’s attack: Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, Sgt. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, out of Fort Moore, Ga.

Fatal drone attack similar to recent incidents in Iraq and Syria

Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted to sergeant, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman on Monday said more than 40 troops had reported injuries so far, eight of whom were flown to Baghdad for evaluation and three of whom was sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Facility in Germany. One was in critical condition and the other two were in stable condition as of Tuesday.

Troops have suffered traumatic brain injuries in attacks across Iraq and Syria since October, and officials say those injuries can sometimes take time to appear.

Several hundred Guardsmen are deployed to Tower 22, a logistics support facility on the Jordan-Syria border, according to the Guard statement.

They include members of 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment from the Arizona National Guard, the California National Guard’s 40th Infantry Division, the Kentucky Guard’s 138th Field Artillery Brigade and the 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion from the New York National Guard.

The attribution comes as Iran threatened on Wednesday to “decisively respond” to any U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic after the U.S. said it holds Tehran responsible. The U.S. has signaled it is preparing for retaliatory strikes in the Mideast in the wake of the Sunday drone attack that also wounded at least 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that’s been crucial to the American presence in neighboring Syria.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday the U.S. believes the attack was planned, resourced and facilitated by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah. He said Biden “believes that it is important to respond in an appropriate way.”

Kirby said Biden was continuing to weigh retaliation options to the attack but said “the first thing you see won’t be the last thing,” adding it “won’t be a one-off.”

Kirby dismissed a statement by Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah announcing “the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government.” He said that the group can’t be taken at face value, and he added, “they’re not the only group that has been attacking us.”

Biden, meanwhile, is set to attend the somber return of the fallen troops to U.S. soil on Friday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, known as a dignified transfer, the White House announced.

Pentagon IDs Army Reserve soldiers killed in Jordan Tower 22 attack

Any additional American strikes could further inflame a region already roiled by Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The war began with Hamas attacking Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more than 26,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million others from their homes, arousing anger throughout the Muslim world.

Violence has erupted across the Mideast, with Iran striking targets in Iraq, Pakistan and Syria, and the U.S. carrying out airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels over their attacks shipping in the Red Sea. Some observers fear a new round of strikes targeting Iran could tip the region into a wider war.

A U.S. Navy destroyer in the waterway shot down an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the Houthis late Tuesday, the latest attack targeting American forces patrolling the key maritime trade route, officials said. The U.S. later launched a new round of airstrikes targeting the Houthis.

The Iranian warnings first came from Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He gave a briefing to Iranian journalists late Tuesday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

“The Islamic Republic would decisively respond to any attack on the county, its interests and nationals under any pretexts,” IRNA quoted Iravani as saying. He described any possible Iranian retaliation as a “strong response,” without elaborating.

The Iranian mission to the U.N. did not respond to requests for comment or elaboration Wednesday on Iravani’s remarks.

Iravani also denied that Iran and the U.S. had exchanged any messages over the last few days, either through intermediaries or directly. The pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, which is based in and funded by Qatar, reported earlier that such communication had taken place. Qatar often serves as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran.

“Such messages have not been exchanged,” Iravani said.

But Iran’s government has taken note of the U.S. threats of retaliation for the attack on the base in Jordan.

“Sometime, our enemies raise the threat, and nowadays we hear some threats in between words by American officials,” Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami, who answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at an event Wednesday. “We tell them that you have experienced us, and we know each other. We do not leave any threat without an answer.”

“We are not after war, but we have no fear of war,” he added, according to IRNA.

Kirby, for his part, said the U.S. doesn’t “seek a war with Iran. We’re not looking for a broader conflict.”

On Saturday, a general in charge of Iran’s air defenses described them as being at their “highest defensive readiness.” That raises concerns for commercial aviation traveling through and over Iran as well. After a U.S. drone strike killed a top general in 2020, Iranian air defenses mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.

On Wednesday, a U.S. military jet struck a surface-to-air missile that was about to launch from Houthi-controlled Yemen, a U.S. official said. The missile was deemed an immediate threat and destroyed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details ahead of a public announcement.

Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe.

The Houthis hit a commercial vessel with a missile on Friday, sparking a fire that burned for hours.

The U.S. and the United Kingdom have launched multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting the Houthis as allied warships patrol the waterways affected by the attacks. The European Union also plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against the Houthi attacks, the bloc’s top diplomat said Wednesday.

The convoy was organized in part by Pete Chambers, a former Army lieutenant colonel who spoke about the movement this week on shows hosted by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and ousted Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.

Chambers and other organizers urged veterans and service members to join their cause, writing on their website that they were calling on “all active and retired law enforcement and military, veterans, mama bears, elected officials, business owners, ranchers, truckers, bikers, media and law abiding, freedom-loving Americans.”

Scotty Saks, an organizer of the convoy and host of “Sovereign Radio,” claimed that active Navy SEALs and Green Berets were planning to join.

The “Take Our Border Back” convoy said it aims to pressure the federal government by holding a rally Feb. 3 in Quemado, Texas, which lies just 20 miles north of Eagle Pass. On orders from state Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas National Guard rolled out concertina wire near Eagle Pass this month and prevented Border Patrol agents from accessing a popular migrant crossing.

In a 5-4 decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court gave Border Patrol the authority to cut the concertina wire. The decision was narrow in scope, and while it says Texas can’t block federal authorities from the border, it doesn’t prevent the state from taking action. Twenty-five Republican governors issued a joint statement Thursday supporting Abbott, arguing that states have a right to self defense.

The tension between state and federal authorities comes amid record levels of unauthorized crossings at the border. Over the weekend, President Joe Biden claimed he would “shut down the border right now” if Congress authorized it.

In addition to the main event in Quemado, “Take Our Border Back” organizers are planning concurrent rallies in San Ysidro, California, and Yuma, Arizona.

As the Texas-bound convoy left from Virginia on Monday, organizers insisted their intent was to hold a peaceful protest to shed light on issues at the border and urge elected officials to take action to close it. However, the group was warning Tuesday of “infiltrators and provocateurs” who might be planning to disrupt their efforts, and extremism experts worried the situation could turn volatile.

“They’re calling for former law enforcement, former military, and so they’re looking for people who are tactically trained. That’s really not a necessity to be a protestor,” said Tom O’Connor, a retired FBI special agent who investigated domestic and international extremism for more than 20 years. “This could end very badly. Citizens clearly have a right to be angry over border issues and legally and peacefully protest their views ... but sending down potential vigilantes to get in between the already tense state and federal law enforcement is probably not a great idea.”

O’Connor and Freddy Cruz, a researcher with the Western States Center, said they were disturbed by the group’s rhetoric about the border. Organizers posted updates about the convoy to the video platform Rumble and X (formerly Twitter), in which they often referred to an “invasion” of migrants. In one video, Saks argued, “We can’t sit by and watch our borders and language and culture being destroyed.”

That type of language perpetuates the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which contends that lenient immigration policies are being designed to replace the power and culture of white people in the U.S., O’Connor and Cruz said. The theory has been tied to multiple mass shootings over the past several years, including the 2022 killing of 10 people in Buffalo, New York, and a shooting in El Paso, Texas, that left 23 people dead in 2019.

“This type of language is very dangerous in animating people to take on a vigilante role,” Cruz said. “It gets more scary when there’s already this tension between state law enforcement and federal agents in Eagle Pass, where immigration has become like a lightening rod. People need to be very responsible about how they’re discussing this in a public space.”

During an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s streaming service Friday, Chambers argued that “mama bears, cops, veterans, truckers” were going to Texas only to “bring light” to the situation. U.S. Army and Texas National Guard spokespersons did not have enough information to verify Chambers’ service record, but in 2022 he testified in federal court that he became qualified as a Green Beret and later joined the Texas National Guard, serving until 2021.

“There is nothing nefarious about this,” Chambers said. “As a matter of fact, I am suggesting to them — and they know this — that this is a peaceful demonstration.”

While planning the convoy, organizers issued a 10-point list of safety rules for participants, including one that read, “Should bad actors try to create a problem, then do your best not to engage them!! Should you find yourself in a life-threatening situation because of such people, then by all means DEFEND yourself in accordance with state law.”

“The potential for something to happen or a one-off individual within that group is probably pretty good,” O’Connor said. “And even the group themselves has said that they are going to be looking out for people who are looking to cause problems. So, they’re thinking the same thing.”

It remained uncertain Tuesday how many people were involved in the convoy. According to WAVY, a local television station in Hampton Roads, Virginia, a few dozen vehicles met in a Virginia Beach parking lot before taking off for Texas on Monday. By Tuesday morning, organizers were attempting to curtail confusion about the route.

While it’s unknown how many people might join the rallies, the effort is well-funded. As of Tuesday afternoon, the group had raised nearly $141,000 in donations, which organizers said would be used for gas, permits, communication equipment and staging supplies at rally sites. Some anonymous donors gave between $1,000 and $3,000, their donations accompanied by messages such as, “Put on the armor of God” and “hold the line.”

The convoy stopped Monday night in Jacksonville, Florida, and it was expected to reach Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday. Organizers planned to arrive in Dripping Springs, Texas, on Wednesday, where they are expected to hold a “pep rally” Thursday before going to Quemado on Friday.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

The statement from Kataib Hezbollah, first reported by Reuters, came within hours of President Joe Biden telling reporters Tuesday that he had decided on a response to the fatal drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers, one the Defense Department said “has the footprints” of a Kataib Hezbollah operation.

“I don’t think we could be any more clear that we have called on the Iranian proxy groups to stop the attacks,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday. “They have not, and so we will respond in a time and manner of our choosing.”

Shock, grief and mourning for 3 soldiers killed in Jordan drone strike

There have been three attacks on troops in the Middle East since Sunday, Ryder added, for a total of more than 160 since October.

The U.S. targeted Kataib Hezbollah facilities during a strike within Iraq in late November.

Sunday’s fatal attack on the Tower 22 base in Jordan was the first to result in serious injuries and death. Three U.S. soldiers were killed when a drone struck a barracks building on the base, while eight were airlifted to Baghdad for treatment.

Three of those troops were transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany on Monday, where one is in “critical but stable condition” Ryder said, while the others are in fair condition.

Iraq’s leader wants US troops out, but there’s no timeline in place

While it remains to be seen whether attacks in Iraq and Syria will drop, there has been a small pause in attacks from Houthi militants since Sunday.

That pause appeared to end Tuesday evening, when U.S. Central Command announced that the Navy destroyer Gravely shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity, said preliminary accounts suggest the enemy drone that struck the installation known as Tower 22 may have been mistaken for an American drone that was in the air at the same time.

The officials said that as the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, a U.S. drone was returning to the base. As a result, there was no effort to shoot down the enemy drone.

The preliminary conclusion was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Explanation for how the enemy drone evaded U.S. air defenses on the installation came as the White House said Monday it’s not looking for war with Iran even as President Joe Biden vows retaliatory action. The Democratic administration believes Tehran was behind the strike.

Biden met with members of his national security team in the White House Situation Room to discuss the latest developments.

The brazen attack, which the Biden administration blames on Iranian-based proxies, adds another layer of complexity to an already tense Mideast situation as the Biden administration tries to keep the Israel-Hamas war from expanding into a broader regional conflict.

“The president and I will not tolerate attacks on U.S. forces, and we will take all necessary actions to defend the U.S. and our troops,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday as he met at the Pentagon with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Biden faces a difficult balancing act as he looks to strike back against Tehran in a forceful way without allowing the Gaza conflict to further metastasize. The drone attack was one of dozens on U.S. troops in the Middle East since Hamas launched attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, igniting the war in Gaza. But it’s the first in which American service members have been killed.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reiterated a day after Biden promised to “hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing” that the U.S. administration wasn’t seeking to get into another conflict in the Middle East.

But Kirby also made clear that the American patience has worn thin after more than two months of attacks by Iranian proxies on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan and on the U.S. Navy and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The groups — including Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the Iraq-based Kataeb Hezbollah — say the attacks are in response to Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza.

“We are not looking for a war with Iran,” Kirby told NBC’s “Today” show. “We are not looking to escalate the conflict in the region. … Obviously, these attacks keep coming. We’ll keep looking at the options. I can’t speak for the supreme leader or what he wants or he doesn’t want. I can tell you what we want. What we want is a stable, secure, prosperous Middle East, and we want these attacks to stop.”

Iran on Monday denied it was behind the Jordan strike.

“These claims are made with specific political goals to reverse the realities of the region,” Tehran’s official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying.

Republicans have laid blame on Biden for doing too little to deter Iranian-backed militias, which have carried out some 150 attacks on U.S. troops in region since the start of the war.

“Biden’s response to these attacks has been disorganized, ineffective, and weak,” Republican National Committee spokesman Jake Schneider said in a statement. “Now, more Americans have lost their lives because of Biden’s incompetence.”

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump on Sunday called the attack “yet another horrific and tragic consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender.”

The attack hit a U.S. military desert outpost in the far reaches of northeastern Jordan known as Tower 22. The installation sits near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria along a sandy, bulldozed berm marking the DMZ’s southern edge. The Iraqi border is only 10 kilometers (6 miles) away.

The base began as a Jordanian outpost watching the border, then saw an increased U.S. presence after American forces entered Syria in late 2015. The small installation includes U.S. engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops, with about 350 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel deployed.

Iraq’s government condemned the drone strike in an apparent effort to distance itself from an attack likely carried out by the Iranian-backed militias that have a strong presence inside Iraq.

Government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said in a statement on Monday that Iraq is “monitoring with a great concern the alarming security developments in the region” and called for “an end to the cycle of violence.” The statement said that Iraq is ready to participate in diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation.

An umbrella group for Iran-backed factions known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed dozens of attacks against bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began. On Sunday, the group claimed three drone attacks against sites in Syria, including near the border with Jordan, and one inside of “occupied Palestine,” but so far hasn’t claimed the attack in Jordan.

The attack came as U.S. officials were seeing signs of progress in negotiations to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas to release the more than 100 remaining hostages being held in Gaza in exchange for an extended pause in fighting. While contours of a deal under consideration would not end the war, Americans believed that it could lay the groundwork for a durable resolution to the conflict.

Top U.S., Israeli, Egypt and Qatari officials held talks on Sunday in France about an emerging framework for a hostage deal. Israel said “significant gaps” remain but called the talks constructive and said they would continue in the week ahead.

The Jordan attack also had U.S. allies on edge that the situation in the Middle East could further spiral.

German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer said that “in view of the extremely tense situation in the region, this act is completely irresponsible and could lead to pushing the region further toward escalation.”

“We expect from Iran that it finally exert its influence on its allies in the region so that there is no uncontrolled conflagration, in which no one can have an interest,” Fischer said.

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed reporting.

“Eight personnel that received injuries required evacuation from Jordan to higher level care, but they are in stable condition,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement Sunday evening. “All other service members are being fully evaluated for follow-on care.”

The base, known as Tower 22, sits near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria along a sandy, bulldozed berm marking the DMZ’s southern edge. The Iraqi border is only six miles away.

Tower 22 began as a Jordanian outpost watching the border, then saw an increased U.S. presence there after American forces entered Syria in late 2015. The small installation includes U.S. engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops with about 350 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel deployed there.

The base’s location offers a site for American forces to infiltrate and quietly leave Syria. A small American garrison at al-Tanf in Syria is just 12 miles north of Tower 22. That base is along a Syrian highway leading into Iraq and ultimately Mosul, once a prominent base of the Islamic State group. It’s also a potential weapons shipment route over the road for Iran.

The area is known as Rukban, a vast arid region that once saw a refugee camp spring up on the Syrian side over the rise of the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate in 2014.

Biden: America ‘shall respond’ after drone attack kills 3 US troops

At its height, more than 100,000 people lived there, blocked by Jordan from coming across into the kingdom at the time over concerns about infiltration by the extremist group. Those concerns grew out of a 2016 car bomb attack there that killed seven Jordanian border guards

The camp has dwindled in the time since to some 7,500 people because of a lack of supplies reaching there, according to United Nations estimates.

U.S. troops long have used Jordan, a kingdom bordering Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and Syria, as a basing point. Some 3,000 American troops typically are stationed across Jordan.

However, the U.S. presence in Jordan risks angering a population that’s already held mass demonstrations against Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip over civilian casualties in a conflict that’s already killed over 26,000 Palestinians. Estimates suggest some 3 million of Jordan’s 11.5 million people are Palestinian.

Widespread unrest could threaten the rule of King Abdullah II, a key American ally. Jordan initially denied the Tower 22 base existed within its border after the attack Sunday.

According to a U.S. official, the number of troops injured by the one-way attack drone rose to at least 34.

“Eight personnel that received injuries required evacuation from Jordan to higher level care, but they are in stable condition,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement Sunday evening. “All other service members are being fully evaluated for follow-on care.”

Another official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not made public, said a large drone struck the base, which two other American officials identified as an installation in Jordan known as Tower 22. It is along the Syrian border and is used largely by troops involved in the advise-and-assist mission for Jordanian forces.

The small installation, which Jordan does not publicly disclose, includes U.S. engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the troops were deployed there “to work for the lasting defeat of ISIS.”

Roughly 350 U.S. soldiers and airmen are based there, according to CENTCOM.

Three officials said the drone struck near the troops’ sleeping quarters, which they said explained the high casualty count.

The U.S. military base at al-Tanf in Syria is just 12 miles north of Tower 22. The Jordanian installation provides a critical logistical hub for U.S. forces in Syria, including those at al-Tanf, which is near where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan intersect.

Attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria climb to 130

Biden, who was traveling in South Carolina, asked for a moment of silence during an appearance at a Baptist church’s banquet hall.

“We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls in an attack on one of our bases,” he said. After the moment of silence, Biden added, “and we shall respond.”

With an increasing risk of military escalation in the region, U.S. officials were working to conclusively identify the precise group responsible for the attack, but they have assessed that one of several Iranian-backed groups was behind it.

Iran-backed fighters in east Syria began evacuating their posts, fearing U.S. airstrikes, according to Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet. He told The Associated Press that the areas are the strongholds of Mayadeen and Boukamal.

Biden earlier said in a written statement that the United States “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner (of) our choosing.” Austin said “we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests.”

Jordanian state television quoted Muhannad Mubaidin, a government spokesman, as insisting the attack happened across the border in Syria.

U.S. troops long have used Jordan, a kingdom bordering Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and Syria, as a basing point. Some 3,000 American troops typically are stationed across Jordan, but the number at Tower 22 wasn’t immediately known and isn’t routinely disclosed.

Since the war in Gaza began Oct. 7, Iranian-backed militias have struck American military installations in Iraq more than 60 times and in Syria more than 90 times, with a mix of drones, rockets, mortars and ballistic missiles. The attack Sunday was the first targeting American troops in Jordan during the Israel-Hamas war and the first to result in the loss of American lives. Scores of U.S. personnel have been wounded, including some with traumatic brain injuries, during the attacks.

Senate votes to keep US troops in Syria amid Iran-backed attacks

The militias have said that their strikes are in retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza and that they aim to push U.S. forces out of the region.

The U.S. in recent months has struck targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen to respond to attacks on American forces in the region and to deter Iran-backed Houthi rebels from continuing to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

“I am confident the Biden Administration will respond in a deliberate and proportional manner,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Republicans in Congress said the administration’s approach had failed to deter America’s adversaries in the region.

“We need a major reset of our Middle East policy to protect our national security interests,” said Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., went further, urging the administration “to strike targets of significance inside Iran, not only as reprisal for the killing of our forces, but as deterrence against future aggression. The only thing the Iranian regime understands is force.”

Biden, who was in Columbia, South Carolina, on Sunday, was briefed in the morning by Austin, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. In the afternoon, he met virtually with Vice President Kamala Harris and his national security team for an update.

The president, in the written statement, called it a “despicable and wholly unjust attack” and said the service members were “risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism. It is a fight we will not cease.”

Syria is still in the midst of a civil war and long has been a launch pad for Iranian-backed forces there, including the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Iraq has multiple Iranian-backed Shiite militias operating there as well.

Jordan, a staunch Western ally and a crucial power in Jerusalem for its oversight of holy sites there, is suspected of launching airstrikes in Syria to disrupt drug smugglers, including one that killed nine people earlier this month.

An umbrella group for Iran-backed factions known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq earlier claimed launching explosive drone attacks targeting three areas in Syria, as well as one inside of “occupied Palestine.” The group has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks against bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Three officials with Iran-backed militias in Iraq, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with journalists, said the drone attack against the base in Jordan was launched by one of the Iraqi groups. No faction has yet officially claimed responsibility.

Officials said the U.S. military is not tracking any other attacks on its forces Sunday in the region.

Military Times editor Geoff Ziezulewicz contributed to this report.

The drone attack, which U.S. officials said hit the Tower 22 outpost near Jordan’s border with Syria, is the first such strike that has resulted in U.S. fatalities after months of attacks against American troops in the region by Iran-backed militias.

The extent of injuries to the wounded personnel is unknown at this time. One U.S. official told Reuters, meanwhile, that numerous troops are being evaluated for traumatic brain injury.

In a White House-issued statement on Sunday, President Joe Biden said he was “grieving the loss of these warriors” and blamed the attack on “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”

“These service members embodied the very best of our nation,” Biden said. “Unwavering in their bravery. Unflinching in their duty. Unbending in their commitment to our country — risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism. It is a fight we will not cease.”

Biden added that the U.S. “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing.”

Tower 22, which had not been targeted in previous strikes by Iran-backed militias, is located approximately 12 miles south of the al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, where U.S. troops have maintained a presence to train partner forces as part of the campaign against the Islamic State.

The small installation, which Jordan does not publicly disclose, includes U.S. engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops. An estimated 3,000 U.S. troops are typically stationed in Jordan.

Sunday’s attack is the latest of more than 150 strikes that have been launched on regional bases housing U.S. troops since Oct. 17, shortly after the U.S. sent aircraft carriers, Air Force fighter squadrons and other troops to the Middle East following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Iran-backed militias have struck American military installations using a mix of drones, rockets, mortars and ballistic missiles. Scores of U.S. personnel have been wounded since October, including some who sustained traumatic brain injuries.

The attack Sunday was the first targeting American troops in Jordan amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the deaths of three of our U.S. service members and woundings of other American troops,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Sunday. “The president and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces, and we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests.”

The U.S. in recent months has carried out strikes against targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in response to attacks on American forces in the region and as a means of deterring Iran-backed Houthi rebels from continuing to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Militias claiming responsibility for attacks since October have said the strikes are in retaliation for U.S. support of Israeli in its war in Gaza. Militant groups have also stated the attacks are intended to push U.S. forces out of the region.

The attack Sunday comes as U.S. and Iraqi governments are expected to soon begin discussions about the future role of U.S. troops in Iraq. In a Jan. 10 interview with Reuters, Iraqi prime minister Shia al-Sudani described the presence of 2,500 U.S. troops who deployed to Iraq in support of the mission to defeat ISIS as destabilizing. That rhetoric, however, has yet to yield any formal requests either to the Pentagon or White House, according to U.S. officials.

In accordance with Department of Defense policy, the identities of those killed in Sunday’s attack are being withheld until 24 hours after next-of-kin notifications.

Military Times reporter Meghann Myers contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON ― A growing number of bipartisan lawmakers is questioning President Joe Biden’s legal authorities to conduct strikes on Yemen’s Houthis.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., led three other senators in a Tuesday letter to Biden pushing him on the strategic and legal rationale for the recent tit-for-tat strikes against Houthi assets in Yemen without a military authorization from Congress. The objections come following reports the White House is preparing for a sustained campaign that could last several more months in response to the Iran-backed group’s attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

“There is no current congressional authorization for U.S. military action against the Houthis in the Red Sea or Yemen,” Kaine told Defense News. “This has gone beyond a one-off self-defense. As soon as it’s a prediction of a back-and-forth, it’s going to escalate more. This needs Congress now.”

Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Todd Young, R-Ind., also signed onto the Kaine letter questioning Biden’s legal authorities under the 1973 War Powers Act.

In Biden’s notification to Congress outlining his initial Jan. 11 strikes in Yemen, he invoked his authorities as commander-in-chief under Article II of the Constitution to defend U.S. citizens, personnel and assets.

The senators in their letter noted it “could also be argued that directing military action to defend U.S. commercial shipping is within this power.” However, “most vessels transiting through the Red Sea are not U.S. ships, which raises questions about the extent to which these authorities can be exercised.”

“We support smart steps to defend U.S. personnel and assets, hold the Houthis accountable for their actions and deter additional attacks,” they wrote. “We further believe Congress must carefully deliberate before authorizing offensive military action.”

The strikes have not stopped the Houthis from attacking Red Sea ships, and the Biden administration has responded with seven additional strikes since then. Biden acknowledged last week the strikes had not deterred the Houthis, but vowed they would nevertheless continue.

Asked about the White House’s legal authorities, a National Security Council spokesperson told Defense News “we’re not going to speculate about future strikes or action since the Houthis could choose to stop their indiscriminate and unlawful attacks on U.S. and commercial ships at any time.”

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., told Defense News “the War Powers Act is pretty specific,” noting that if the Yemen strikes trigger it “then they’re going to have to come to us.”

The top Republican on that committee, Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, argued Biden’s Yemen strikes are already covered by his constitutional “authorities to protect American citizens and American property.”

‘In harm’s way’

The Houthis began firing at commercial ships in October, demanding an end to Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israelis. The Defense Department launched Operation Prosperity Guardian in December with Britain and other allies to defend commercial shipping lanes against Houthi attacks.

Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser who is now a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group think tank, questioned the legality of Biden’s Yemen strikes without congressional authorization. He told Defense News that while “it’s generally accepted” the president has authority to defend U.S. forces from attacks, “in this case the president potentially put U.S. troops in harm’s way.”

“The U.S. has been involved in fighting the Houthis, countering the Houthis in the Red Sea, since Oct. 19,” said Finucane. “That’s when the Houthis launched missiles and drones towards Israel and the USS Carney shot them down.”

Congress passed a resolution in 2019 telling former President Donald Trump to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition’s Yemen campaign against the Houthis, noting lawmakers had never authorized the operation. But Trump vetoed it.

The Saudi bombing campaign, from 2015 to 2022, killed nearly 15,000 civilians, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. There have been no reports of civilian casualties resulting from the U.S. strikes this month.

Two of the signatories on the Senate letter — Murphy and Lee — spearheaded the Yemen war powers resolution in the Senate during the Trump administration. At least two House lawmakers who sponsored the 2019 Yemen resolution, Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., have also criticized Biden over the lack of congressional authorization for his recent Yemen strikes.

Murphy told Defense News “it’s very likely” the Biden administration requires a congressional authorization for its strikes, but said “there would be a legitimate debate as to whether we should authorize a limited use of force.”

“What the Houthis have done does directly implicate U.S. interests,” said Murphy.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., generally a critic of foreign military intervention, also said “sustained military action” against the Houthis would require a congressional authorization and indicated he may be open to supporting one.

“In this particular instance, I do support military reprisals and military attacks to deter attacking our ships, but [the Biden administration] shouldn’t be allowed to do that without permission,” Paul told Defense News.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, told Defense News in October he was drafting an authorization for the Biden administration to strike Iran-backed proxies in the Middle East amid the fighting between Israel and Hamas, though he has not introduced it.

Iran-backed militias have targeted U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria at least 151 times since Oct. 7, leading to retaliatory strikes from the Biden administration. The Senate voted in December to keep U.S. troops in Syria, rejecting 13-84 a Paul resolution that would have forced Biden to withdraw them.

The U.S. strikes hit militia facilities in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, U.S. Central Command said.

“At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq,” Austin said in a statement. “These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against U.S. and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias.”

The strikes came hours after the U.S. said militants fired two one-way attack drones at the al-Asad Air Base, injuring U.S. service members and damaging infrastructure. And they follow the militia’s most serious attack this year on the air base, when they launched multiple ballistic missiles on Saturday at the western Iraq facility used by U.S. troops.

U.S. Central Command said the attack targeted headquarters, storage, and training locations for rocket, missile, and one-way attack drone capabilities of the group.