The Islamic Republic of Iran denied any involvement in a January 28 attack that killed three US service members and wounded scores of others in Jordan, after President Joe Biden blamed Tehran-backed groups for the unmanned aerial drone strike.
The overnight attack in northeast Jordan follows months of strikes by such groups against American forces across the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
However, it was the first targeting American troops in Jordan during the conflict and the first to result in the loss of American lives.
"While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq," Biden said in a statement, pledging to hold "all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing."
The US president later held a moment of silence at a South Carolina church banquet hall for the US troops killed in the attack, vowing: "We shall respond."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said “we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops and our interests.”
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose coalition of Iran-backed militant groups, claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
US officials said the attack was on a military base known as Tower 22, near the Syrian border.
They said that at least 34 military personnel were being evaluated for possible traumatic brain injury, and that some of the injured soldiers were medically evacuated from the base for further treatment.
Tehran denied US and UK accusations that it supported militant groups blamed for the attack.
"These claims are made with specific political goals to reverse the realities of the region," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Kanaani said "resistance groups" in the region do not take orders from the Islamic Republic.
The spokesman also said that the continuation of US strikes on Syria and Iraq as well as the Gaza war will only intensify a cycle of instability in the region.
In December, US officials said that US bases in Iraq and Syria had been attacked at least 97 times since mid October.
In recent months, the US 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.
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