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

Iran disputed US and British charges that it aided terrorist organisations responsible for a drone strike in Jordan that killed three US military personnel, Tehran’s official IRNA news agency said 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. No one has claimed to be in charge of the strike thus far. According to US President Joe Biden, the attack on the border base in northeastern Jordan was carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” on Sunday. The need for Iran “to de-escalate in the region” was reaffirmed by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. “Regional and international peace and stability” was jeopardised, according to Kanaani, by such remarks. According to the US Central Command, eight of the 34 injured individuals needed to be evacuated. As part of a global alliance against the extremist organisation Islamic State, US forces are stationed at a facility close to Jordan’s borders with Syria and Iraq. Since the start of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, the strike represented the first US military casualties. 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.