President Joe Biden is pledging undefined retaliation after three US troops were killed and dozens more injured in a drone strike Jan. 28, being blamed on one of the Iran-backed militias that have been harassing US-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria since eruption of the new Gaza conflict. It is widely reported that the target was a site in Jordan known as Tower 22, which provides logistical support for the US outpost across the border at al-Tanf, Syria—near where the borders of Jordan, Syria and Iraq intersect. However, a communique that day from the umbrella group for Iran-backed factions known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq did not mention Tower 22, but claimed responsibility for drone strikes on three sites within Syria. These are al-Tanf, the nearby border outpost of Rukban, and Shaddadi—over 200 kilometers away in Hasakah governorate, in the northeastern corner of Syria, near oil fields that are under the control of US-backed Kurdish forces. (See map) (AP, LWJ)

Also that day, a commander of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, another Iran-backed faction, said that the opening of talks between the US and Baghdad on the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq would not mean a halt to its attacks on US positions. "Iraq's negotiations with the Americans will never cause a decline in efforts by the Islamic resistance against the outsiders, and they will even cause us to pile more pressure on the occupiers," an unnamed Nujaba commander told Iranian state media. (Press TV)