USAupdated 1h ago3 min read
Photo · 2 February 2024Biden Honors Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, Sgt. Breonna Moffett After Jordan Drone Attack
4 Western Mainstream1 Local Western1 OtherPhoto: Jason Minto / US federal government, Public domain · Cropped for layout
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Three American service members killed in a Jordan drone attack. President Biden and first lady attended the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base.
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Dover honors Jordan dead
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden joined grieving families at Dover Air Force Base to honor the three American service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan, as an Air Force chaplain offered a short prayer before the transfer of the flag-draped cases holding the soldiers' remains.
The carry team transferred the remains from a C-5 Galaxy military transport aircraft to a waiting vehicle, and President Biden looked on with his right hand over his heart during the roughly 15-minute ritual called a dignified transfer.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined the Bidens for the proceedings, and the service members were identified as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, and Sgt. Breonna Moffett.
The U.S. military returned the soldiers to American soil as officials said the drone attack was carried out by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah.
The Defense Department said the deaths were the first U.S. fatalities blamed on Iran-backed militia groups, and the soldiers were assigned to the 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, based at Fort Moore, Ga.
Biden, families, and language
President Biden told reporters, "They risked it all," as he prepared to attend his second dignified transfer as commander in chief on Friday.
The military described the event as a dignified transfer rather than a ceremony, and the flag-draped boxes that arrive to Dover were described as "transfer cases" loaded onto trucks for processing at the base mortuary.
The White House said Biden met with each of the families at the Center for Families of the Fallen prior to attending the dignified transfer, and the schedule allowed for more than an hour midday to meet with the families alongside Jill Biden, Lloyd Austin, and Gen. C.Q. Brown.
Shawn, Sanders' father, said in a posting on Facebook on Friday morning that "kindness and outpouring of love" was "the only thing holding me up" since his daughter's death.
The Pentagon and administration officials joined the Bidens for the proceedings, and the transfer cases were carried by teams of seven from the bay of the military cargo plane onto waiting gray mortuary vans.
Retaliation and political pushback
The U.S. began a wave of retaliatory airstrikes Friday, targeting dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran-backed militias, and the White House said the retaliation would not be a "one-off" strike.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the operation involved "more than 125 precision-guided munitions" over about 30 minutes, and Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims said he believes the strikes were "successful."
The New York Post reported that the Pentagon announced the strikes began at 4 p.m. ET, two hours after the conclusion of a dignified transfer ceremony honoring the three soldiers at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Sen. Roger Wicker said the strikes were "welcome, but come far too late for the three brave Americans who died and the nearly 50 wounded," and he added that the Biden administration spent nearly a week "foolishly telegraphing" intentions to adversaries.
President Biden told reporters on Tuesday, "I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East," and he said that he held Iran "responsible" in the sense that it was supplying the weapons to the people who carried out the attack.