US preparing for retaliatory strikes that could last weeks after 3 troops killed: Report

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Retaliatory strikes being prepared by the US in response to the weekend killings of 3 American troops could last for "weeks," a report published Wednesday suggested.

The response is being described by anonymous US officials as a prolonged "campaign," and while targets have yet to be finalized, they will "likely" include kinetic and cyberattacks, NBC News reported. All of the targets are expected to be outside of Iran proper, but will span multiple countries.

Sunday's suicide drone attack killed three American troops and injured at least 34 others at Tower 22, a remote military installation in Jordan near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. An umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility.

The group has been carrying out drone and missile attacks on US forces in the region for months amid Israel's ongoing war against the besieged Gaza Strip. Sunday's fatalities were the first to have resulted from the attacks. Most others were intercepted or resulted in minor injuries to American forces.

The Pentagon identified the deceased as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett. All were killed when the suicide drone hit their housing unit.

Kataib Hezbollah is one of the main groups that comprise the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and is widely regarded as its premier group. Some media reports have said it was the group that carried out Sunday's deadly attack but the Biden administration has yet to officially attribute blame.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he has determined how he will respond to Sunday's drone attack, but did not offer details on what it will entail.

While he has emphasized that he is not seeking to create "a wider war in the Middle East," he said he holds Iran responsible "in the sense that they're supplying weapons to the people who did it."

Iran vowed Wednesday to decisively respond to any attack that targets its territories or interests, following Washington's threats.

A statement issued by Iran's permanent mission to the UN warned that Tehran would respond decisively to any attack on its territory, interests or nationals outside its borders, the official Iranian IRNA agency reported Wednesday.

It also denied reports about the US sending messages to Iran via mediators in the past two days.