American warplanes destroyed or severely damaged most of the Iranian and militia targets they struck in Syria and Iraq on Friday, according to the Pentagon, the first major salvos in what President Biden and his aides have said will be a sustained campaign. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Monday that "more than 80" of some 85 targets in Syria and Iraq were destroyed or rendered inoperable. The targets, he said, included command hubs; intelligence centers; depots for rockets, missiles and attack drones; as well as logistics and ammunition bunkers. It was the first military assessment of the strikes carried out in response to a drone attack in Jordan by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq on Jan. 28 that killed three American soldiers and injured at least 40 more service members. "This is the start of our response, and there will be additional actions taken," General Ryder told reporters without elaborating.

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich has the latest on the pressure on Biden to respond to the attack that killed three U.S. service members, on Special Report. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will on Friday take part in the dignified transfer of the remains of three troops killed in the Iran-backed militia attack in Jordan last weekend. The Bidens will join the grieving families of the three American service members who died when a drone struck a base, known as Tower 22, near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border is only six miles away. The fallen troops were Sgt.

Iran is claiming that accusations of its involvement in an attack that left three U.S. service members dead in Jordan over the weekend are "baseless." Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani also claimed that "resistance groups" in the region do not take orders from Iran, according to Reuters. The remarks come after three American service members were killed and other were wounded in a drone attack near the Syrian border over the weekend. "While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq," President Biden said in response to the strike. Some Republicans have pressed Biden to authorize stronger action against Iran, with members of both parties concerned about the safety of U.S. troops overseas.

Three US service members have been killed and "many" others wounded during an unmanned aerial drone attack on US forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, President Joe Biden has said, blaming Iran-backed groups for the attack. The United States military said in a statement that at least 25 people were injured. "While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq," Biden said in a statement on Sunday. Biden said the US "will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing." Jordanian state television quoted Muhannad Mubaidin, a spokesperson for Jordan's government, as saying the attack happened outside of the kingdom across the border in Syria. There was no immediate comment from Iran.

WASHINGTON – The imminent fall of the Islamic State's de facto capital leaves America a multitude of tasks to restore stability in the Middle East, starting with pockets of remaining IS resistance in Syria and Iraq. Then there are the more deeply rooted problems, not fixable by guns or bombs, that allowed extremism to rise and flourish: Syria's civil war and Iraq's intractable political, religious and ethnic disputes, which turned violent again this week. The challenge is more than the U.S. can handle alone. It likely will keep some troops in Iraq for years to come to train and advise the army, police and other members of security forces that imploded when IS fighters swept across the Syrian border and captured Mosul in June 2014. The militants also have footholds in Afghanistan and beyond.