President Biden on Sunday vowed to respond after three U.S. troops were killed in an Iranian-backed drone strike in Jordan on Saturday night.
At a speaking engagement in South Carolina on Sunday, Biden held a moment of silence for the three U.S. soldiers killed.
“We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls in an attack on one of our bases,” Biden said.
“And we shall respond,” he added, shortly after holding a moment of silence at the Brookland Baptist Banquet Center at a church Sunday lunch as he made a swing through the state over the weekend.
Biden’s remarks come after he confirmed early Sunday that a drone strike killed three service members and injured at least two dozen more in Jordan, near the border with Syria and Iraq where the troops were stationed.
Biden said in an earlier statement that the attack was carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant groups.” The attack marks the first deaths of U.S. service members by enemy combatants in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, though several bases have been under attack in the region.
The Pentagon called the strike a “one-way ‘suicide’ drone attack on a patrol base.”
Biden and Vice President Harris were briefed on the attack by their national security team.
“Jill and I join the families and friends of our fallen — and Americans across the country — in grieving the loss of these warriors in this despicable and wholly unjust attack,” Biden said earlier, confirming the attacks.