The US believes an umbrella group of militants called Islamic Resistance in Iraq was behind the drone attack in Jordan that killed three American service members, the White House said Wednesday, its first formal attribution for the incident.
“We believe that the attack in Jordan was planned, resourced and facilitated by an umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which contains multiple groups including Kata’ib Hezbollah,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
He stopped short of assigning exact blame on Kata’ib Hezbollah, saying it was not the only group responsible for previous attacks on US bases.
“This certainly has the earmarks of the kinds of things that Kata’ib Hezbollah does,” he said, adding, “The attribution that that our intelligence community is comfortable with is that this was done by the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.”
The attack was the most serious of scores of attacks that have targeted US forces in the Middle East since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, and the first time US troops have died under direct fire in the Middle East since the attack.
The killed servicemembers were identified as Sgt. William Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Sgt. Breonna Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted from the rank of specialist to sergeant, the Army Reserve said.
