WASHINGTON: The US has approved plans for a series of strikes on Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq, officials told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
The strikes will take place over several days, officials said, and weather conditions are likely to dictate when they start, BBC News reported.
This comes after a drone strike killed three US soldiers named as William Jerome Rivers, 46, Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23 in Jordan near the Syrian border on Sunday.
All three were part of an Army Reserve unit based at Fort Moore in Georgia. The United States blamed Iran-backed militias for the attack.
This group, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, is believed to contain numerous militias that have been armed, funded and trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The US claims they are responsible for Sunday’s strike.
Iran, meanwhile, has denied any role in the attack, which injured 41 other US soldiers at a military base known as Tower 22. Four US officials quoted by media said US intelligence believed the drone used to attack the facility was manufactured by Iran.
At a press conference on Thursday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the US “will not tolerate attacks on American troops”.
“We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people,” he said. “We will respond where we choose, when we choose and how we choose.”
Officials who spoke to CBS News did not give an exact timeline for the potential strikes. They said the US military could detonate them in bad weather, but preferred better visibility to reduce the risk of accidentally hitting civilians.
President Joe Biden is under increasing pressure from Republican lawmakers, including some of Washington’s most hawkish voices on Iran, to strike targets on Iranian soil.
But while the US has repeatedly pledged to respond to the drone strike, Mr Biden and other defence officials have said Washington is not seeking a wider war with Iran or an escalation of tensions in the region.
US officials told CNN this week that there are signs the Iranian government is increasingly concerned about the actions of its proxy groups in the region, which have launched more than 160 attacks on US forces since October.
The bodies of three US servicemen killed in an attack in Jordan are expected to be repatriated to a Delaware Air Force base on Friday. The White House has announced that President Biden will attend the rituals.
