Jordan Map Shows Where US Base Attacked

Iran has denied any involvement in the drone attack that killed three U.S. troops and injured 34 more on a U.S. base in Jordan, as a map by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shows the site of the attack amid concerns of a regional conflagration.

U.S. officials are trying to prove who was responsible for the attack on Tower 22 in the northeast of Jordan on Sunday, as Iran-backed fighters in east Syria began evacuating their posts, fearing American reprisals.

President Joe Biden has vowed a response to the first killing of U.S. soldiers in the region since the start of the Israel war against Hamas on October 7, with one expert telling Newsweek that the attack was a "game changer" for his administration.

U.S. military installations in Iraq and Syria have come under attack by Iranian-backed militias in solidarity with Hamas, whose attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people was followed by Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

A map by the ISW map on Sunday shows the extent of these attacks on American sites which include strikes on the Ain al Assad and Al Harir Air Bases in Iraq and other U.S. military targets in the region.

Sunday's attack near on the site in Jordan, a key U.S. ally, "is a heinous escalation, and it must not go unpunished," said Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations.

"We cannot stand idle to terrorism," he added in a statement to Newsweek.

Biden has pledged retaliation "at a time and place of our choosing" but the U.S. will need to consider whether to hold Iran itself responsible which could pose the risk of escalation.

"The attack on Tower 22 is undoubtedly a game changer for the Biden Administration's policy of deterrence," said Michael Butler, associate professor of political science at Clark University, Massachusetts.

"While the U.S. has been trying to thread the needle between degrading the capacity of Iranian proxies without directly engaging Iran itself, it is hard to envision that policy remaining viable now. I'd expect a serious escalation is around the corner," Butler told Newsweek.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said U.S. accusations of Tehran's involvement were "baseless and that it was "not involved in the decision-making of Resistance groups," referring to allied groups known as the "Axis of Resistance".

Analysis from the Atlantic Council think tank shared with Newsweek said U.S. policymakers had previously believed that the threats from Iran and its partners to U.S. forces in the region were being successfully managed, but Sunday's attack showed that assumption was false.

The incident also showed Tehran's "increased risk tolerance" in its bid for regional dominance because Syria and Iraq—based Shia militants aligned with Iran were "unlikely to carry out such an attack without at least the implicit support and approval of senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leaders," said Jonathan Panikoff, director of the think tank's Middle East Security Initiative.

Retaliation could see the U.S. pursue Iranian naval assets, target the leadership of Yemeni militants the Houthis and "comprehensively enforce U.S. sanctions against Iran," said William Wechsler, a senior director the Atlantic Council and former US. deputy assistant secretary of defense.

Other options include "targeting Iranian.—not just proxy—personnel in Syria and eliminating individual IRGC leadership" while abroad, such as the U.S. strike that killed senior IRGC leader Qassem Soleimani in 2020, Wechsler added.

Newsweek has contacted the U.S. State Department for comment.