Wait for U.S. retaliatory strikes gives Iran-linked militias plenty of time to prepare

U.S. forces will have multiple targets to pick from as they prepare a forceful response to the deaths of three American service members in Jordan, experts say.

ERBIL, Iraq — U.S. forces have multiple targets to pick from as they prepare a forceful response to the deaths of three American service members in a drone attack in Jordan, experts say. But after Washington has hinted of retaliatory strikes for days, Iran-backed militant groups across the Middle East have had plenty of time to ready themselves.

American forces are expected to hit targets in countries outside Iran in response to last Sunday's drone strike, U.S. officials told NBC News on Thursday. The operation will likely be President Joe Biden’s most forceful response yet to militia groups that have launched more than 160 attacks against U.S. forces since the war between Israel and Hamas started in Gaza on Oct. 7. 

“At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday at a news conference. How much Tehran knew about the attack on the Tower 22 in Jordan that killed Spc. Kennedy Sanders, Spc. Breonna Moffet and Sgt. William Jerome Rivers “really doesn’t matter because Iran sponsors these groups,” he added. 

“Without that facilitation, these kinds of things don’t happen,” Austin said of the strike, which also injured more than 30 service members and which the U.S. has attributed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.

A satellite image of Tower 22 in northern Jordan where three U.S. service members where killed.Maxar via Getty ImagesBoth Iraq and Syria are home to hundreds of Iran-linked military sites, according to Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-hamas-war-us-strikes-iran-militants-iraq-syria-rcna136934

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