Iran denies links to Jordan drone strike that killed 3 US troops

Iran denied US and British accusations that it supported militant groups behind a drone strike in Jordan that killed three US military personnel, Tehran’s official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

“These claims are made with specific political goals to reverse the realities of the region,” IRNA quoted foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying.

There has so far been no claim of responsibility for the strike.

US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” were behind the strike on the frontier base in Jordan’s northeast.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron reiterated a call for Iran “to de-escalate in the region.”

Kanaani said such statements threatened “regional and international peace and stability.”

US Central Command said 34 personnel were also wounded, eight of whom required evacuation.

US troops operate at the base near Jordan’s border with Iraq and Syria as part of an international coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.

The strike marked the first US military losses since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

Iran-backed Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on October 7 that resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel’s relentless military offensive has killed at least 26,422 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.