Who are the three US soldiers killed in Jordan drone attack? Pentagon releases names and vows action as Iran denies involvement

On Sunday, January 28, three American service members were killed in a drone attack on a small U.S. Military outpost near the Syrian border in Jordan. In a Monday press release, the Defense Department revealed the identities of the service members who were killed. Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett passed away on Sunday.

Additionally, 40 servicemen were injured in the incident. Sabrina Singh, the deputy press secretary for the Pentagon, said that a militia supported by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched the attack. Iran denied any blame for the strike. On the other hand, responsibility for the strike was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, as reported by The Guardian.

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"We know that Iran is behind it": Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh on Jordan drone attack

The tragic drone attack on a small logistics support base at Tower 22 of the Jordanian Defense Network led to the tragic death of 3 United States service members and the injury of over 40. The Pentagon confirmed in a statement that the base was hit by a "one-way uncrewed aerial system".

The statement revealed:

"The three soldiers killed are Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Georgia; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders of Waycross, Georgia; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett of Savannah, Georgia."

Sgt. William Jerome Rivers was 46 years old and served as an interior electrician in the Army Reserve. He was a recipient of the Army Service Ribbon, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal.

Spc. Kennedy L. Sanders was a 24-year-old horizontal construction engineer in the Army Reserve. She was also a recipient of the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Army Service Ribbon, along with the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.

The youngest of the three fallen service members was Spc. Breonna A. Moffett, who served as a horizontal construction engineer in the Army Reserve. Just like her fellow fallen compatriots, she was also the recipient of the National Defense Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said in a briefing on Monday that eight of the over 40 injured from the drone attack were evacuated to the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, three of whom will be further transported to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

Although Singh stated that it was unclear as to who exactly initiated the attack, they knew it was a militia backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The press secretary said:

"It has the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah. But not making a final assessment on that, our teams here are continuing to do the analysis."

She added:

"We know that Iran is behind it. And certainly as we've said before ... Iran continues to arm and equip these groups to launch these attacks, and we will certainly hold them responsible."

However, she further said that the United States did not seek a war with Iran or a wider Middle Eastern conflict. How the U.S. responds will be ultimately decided by President Joe Biden after consulting the secretary of defense along with the national security team. Sabrina Singh proclaimed:

"I'm not going to get ahead of any decisions that the president and secretary make on this together. But certainly, as our statement said yesterday, we are committed to responding and we will do so at a time and place of our choosing."

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Iran denies responsibility for drone attack

Iran, on the other hand completely denied their involvement in the Jordan drone attack. On Monday, the country's foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani called the allegations against Iran, "baseless". The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Kanaani as saying:

"As we have clearly stated before, the resistance groups in the region are responding [to] the war crimes and genocide of the child-killing Zionist regime and that they do not take orders from the Islamic Republic of Iran."

He added:

"These groups decide and act based on their own principles and priorities as well as the interests of their country and people."

The IRNA also reported that a United Nations representative from the Islamic Republic of Iran told the outlet that Iran did not have anything to do with the drone attack.

The BBC later reported that the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had taken responsibility for the drone attack in a statement released by the organization. They declared that they had hit the Zvulon naval installation in Palestine and three US locations in Syria. Rukban, Ash Shaddadi, and Al-Tanf were the three Syrian bases that were targeted.

The Middle East Monitor quoted the group as saying that:

"It will continue its attacks on the strongholds of the enemies in support of the Gaza Strip and in response to the Israeli massacres against the Strip for 114 days."

Sabrina Singh said that the drone attacks took place early morning when officers were still in their beds. A U.S. official told CBS that the drone that was used in the attack was a "type of Shahed drone", which is an Iranian one-way attack drone that the country had been supplying to Russia.

CBS also cited an official who said that another U.S. drone was returning from a previous mission, hence the air defense system's auto-response features were switched off. The official also said that the drone had come in slow and low.