The U.S. is blaming Iranian-backed militants for a drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan.
Topline
The Biden administration blamed a drone strike that killed three American troops stationed in Jordan on “Iran-backed militant groups”—which the government says the Islamic Republic has used for years to fight a proxy conflict with the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East, through a series of militant groups.Key Facts
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist organization that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2006, reportedly received weapons and training from Iran before launching the attacks on Israel on October 7, which plunged the region into a prolonged war.
Hezbollah, whose name means “Party of God” in Arabic, was originally backed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps during the Lebanese Civil War and the Israeli invasion of the country in the 1980s, has become a dominant political movement in the country representing the Shia Muslim minority in the south, and the U.S. believes it has in recent years received hundreds of millions in funding from Iran.
The Houthi movement, a Shia Islamist militant group based in northern Yemen, is believed to be primarily funded by Iran.
The Houthis have remained in control of most of northern Yemen, including the capital of Sana’a, where the group began launching missile and drone strikes against Israel-linked cargo ships in the Red Sea, in an effort to support Hamas in their ongoing conflict.
