Updates with Iraq's response in paragraphs 6 & 7
Iran has hit back at allegations by Washington that it was involved in a deadly drone attack in northeast Jordan over the weekend which claimed the lives of three US service members and wounded 25 others.
US president Joe Biden said on 28 January that Washington knew the attack "was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq" and vowed to respond. "Have no doubt, we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing," Biden said in a post on social media platform X.
These deaths are the first US fatalities related to the ongoing fighting in Gaza that began in early October following Palestinian militant group Hamas' cross border attack on Israel, and represent the deadliest encounter for US forces in the Middle East in years. US military forces in Syria and Iraq have come under repeated missile and drone attacks since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict, with the US carrying out strikes in retaliation against facilities it says are used by Iran-backed militia groups in the two countries. One of the strikes killed a senior Iraqi militia commander in Baghdad.
Iran's foreign ministry said on 29 January that Iran had no involvement in the Jordan strikes, insisting that regional militias, which Tehran refers to as resistance groups, are autonomous in their decision making and do not take their orders from Tehran.
"The regional resistance groups do not take orders from Iran for their decisions and actions, and Iran does not interfere in their decisions on how to support the Palestinian nation, or defend themselves and their people against any aggression or occupation," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said.
"Repeating such baseless accusations against Iran is a projection, and a conspiracy of those who see an interest in dragging America into a new battle in the region," he said.
An Iran-backed Iraqi militant group under the name of "the Islamic Resistance in Iraq" had claimed the 28 January attack on US troops. Iraq's federal government condemned the attack, with spokesman Basim Alawadi saying it is closely monitoring with a great concern the alarming security developments in the region.
"The repercussions of these developments pose a threat to regional and international peace and security, jeopardising efforts of combating terrorism and narcotics and put at risk trade, the economy, and energy supplies," Alawadi said.
The exchange of fire between the US and Iran-backed groups is just one of several fronts in an increasingly widening conflict that has resulted from the fighting in Gaza. The Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have inflicted a significant toll on global shipping patterns by targeting container ships, oil tankers and US and UK warships in the Red Sea.
The latest Houthi attack, on 26 January, targeted the Marlin Luanda, a Long Range 2 (LR2) product tanker that loaded a cargo of naphtha in the Mediterranean and was heading towards southeast Asia, according to vessel tracking data. The vessel was struck by a missile and caught fire, but the blaze was subsequently extinguished.
Kanaani said Iran has been "repeatedly warning about the potential for the conflict in the region… to expand" and said an end to Israel's bombardment of Gaza and an immediate ceasefire "could be the basis for a return of peace to the region".
The escalation over the weekend came as the US, Qatar and Egypt appeared to be moving closer to agreeing the terms of another pause in the fighting in Gaza. The US has so far been unsuccessful in persuading Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scale down its military operations.
