President Joe Biden said Tuesday he has made a decision on how to respond to the recent attack on a military base in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded 25 others.
Asked whether he held Iran responsible, Biden said: “I hold them responsible in the sense that they provide the weapons to the people who did it.”
Biden spoke to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before heading to Palm Beach, Florida, for a fundraiser.
The president's comments follow a promise he made on the day of the attack to take swift action to address the attacks. “We will respond,” he said on Sunday.
Biden blamed “radical, Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” for the unmanned aerial drone strike on troops stationed in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border.
He vowed to “hold all those responsible accountable at a time and in a manner of our choosing.”
In his remarks Tuesday, Biden gave no details about what the response will be.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday he was unable today to confirm exactly which militant group was responsible for the attack.
“We are still working on the analysis, but the work clearly has all the hallmarks of groups supported by the IRGC and indeed Hezbollah,” he said.
The three American troops were the first to be killed by enemy fire in the Middle East since Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, sparking the war that has left more than 26,000 Palestinians dead in Gaza.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also announced retaliatory measures in a statement.
Meanwhile, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina and Tom Cotton of Arkansas quickly blamed Biden for the tragedy and joined Senator John Cornyn of Texas in calling for a military strike against Iran.
Former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, blamed Biden for the attack on Truth Social.
“This brazen attack on the United States is another terrible and tragic consequence of Joe Biden’s weakness and capitulation…” he wrote.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent focusing on the economy for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal