{"id":32850,"date":"2024-01-30T16:09:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T16:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2024\/01\/30\/us-sees-footprints-of-iran-backed-group-in-tower-22-drone-attack\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:37:13","slug":"us-sees-footprints-of-iran-backed-group-in-tower-22-drone-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/intel-geoint\/2024\/01\/30\/us-sees-footprints-of-iran-backed-group-in-tower-22-drone-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"US sees \u2018footprints\u2019 of Iran-backed group in Tower 22 drone attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 A drone strike that killed three U.S. troops and injured dozens more in Jordan could have been executed with a number of airframes but bore the signs of an extremist group with access to Iranian weaponry, according to the U.S. Department of Defense and outside analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the department investigates what type of drone slipped past air defenses and hit a desert installation known as Tower 22<\/a> near Syria, preliminary evidence suggests the attack was the workings of Kataib Hezbollah, according to Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh. The group emerged in the early 2000s and has since been blamed for violence across Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn terms of attribution for the attack, we know this is an [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]-backed militia. It has the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah, but not making a final assessment on that,\u201d she said during a Jan. 29 briefing at the Pentagon. \u201cOur teams are continuing to do the analysis, but we know Iran is behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Iranian government denied involvement but has long supplied combatants in advancement of its own goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assets from the regime have been used by Houthi rebels in Yemen to harass ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, deployed by Russian forces in their continued invasion of Ukraine and were reportedly exported to Ethiopia<\/a> and Sudan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a whole host of airframes and systems that Iran-backed militias in Iraq have been parading for the past few years that show telltale signs of Iranian support,\u201d Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told C4ISRNET. \u201cVia these parades, we have seen Iran-backed groups tip their hand as to new capabilities made available by their patron in Tehran.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t