As part of an ongoing response to the deaths of three U.S. soldiers in Jordan on Jan. 28, U.S and British forces have executed strikes against Houthis in Yemen.
According to CNN, the strikes, which were supported by several other countries, targeted command and control facilities, an underground weapons storage facility and other weapons stores of the Houthis.
U.S forces also struck six Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles before they could be launched into the Red Sea. The strikes hit a minimum of 30 targets spread across at least 10 locations, two U.S. officials told CNN.
What happened at Tower 22 in Jordan?
Early on the morning of Sunday, Jan. 28, an unmanned aerial drone bombed a logistics support base located at Tower 22 of the Jordanian Defense Network, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Tower 22 lies near the demilitarized zone between Jordan and Syria and is only 5 miles from the Iraq border, per The Associated Press.
The attack killed three service members and injured more than 40, eight of whom had to be evacuated from the base. According to the Department of Defense, the three service members killed were Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Georgia; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders of Waycross, Georgia; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett of Savannah, Georgia.
U.S. Response
After the attack on Sunday, the Biden administration approved a mulitpronged attack on Iraq and Syria on Friday, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
Military forces struck 85 targets at seven separate locations used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in previous attacks on U.S forces, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin said in a statement released through the Department of Defense.
In his statement, Austin stated that neither he nor the president “seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else,” but that they “will not tolerate attacks on American forces.”
In a response released through The White House on Friday, President Joe Biden said, “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
He continued, “The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”