An Iraq-based, Iran-backed militant group suspected of participating in the drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan announced it was suspending attacks on U.S. military installations in Iraq and Syria.
Abu Hussein Al-Hamidawi, secretary-general of Kataib Hezbollah, said the militia’s fighters would adopt a “temporary passive defense” and warned against “hostile American action.” His group, also called the Hezbollah Brigades, is the strongest among a collection of Iran-backed militias known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI).
Pressure from Iran and Iraq, which felt the faction had gone too far, prompted Kataib Hezbollah to stand down, Reuters reported. The Pentagon had pointed to the group as the likely perpetrator of the deadly drone strike.
The White House said Wednesday it blames the IRI for the attack, and President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he had decided on a military response but provided no details.
Biden’s announcement comes amid increasing global concerns that the war in Gaza, ignited by a deadly Hamas-led rampage into Israeli border communities, could explode into a massive regional conflict pitting the U.S. against Iran. Biden said he held Tehran responsible for arming the militant groups but added that the U.S. was not looking for a war with Iran.
Iran has denied involvement in the Jordan attack, saying it was not privy to military decisions made by regional resistance groups. Hossein Salami, chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, warned that any military action targeting Iran would draw a response.
“We hear threats coming from American officials, we tell them that they have already tested us and we now know one another,” he said, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency. “No threat will be left unanswered.”
After the drone strike in Jordan:A look at the lethal military tool’s proliferation
Developments:
∎ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with relatives and friends of 18 hostages, telling them the government is laboring hard to get their loved ones home: “The more discreet it is from the public, the higher the chances are it will pay off,” i24 News quoted Netanyahu as saying.
∎ The Chicago City Council was scheduled to vote on a resolution calling for a cease-fire and release of all hostages. The vote comes a day after a City Hall sit-in by high schoolers opposed to U.S. funding of Israel’s war in Gaza.
∎ Swedish authorities discovered and detonated a bomb near the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm on Wednesday. Ambassador Ziv Nevo Kulman posted a brief note on social media: “We thank the Swedish authorities for their swift response. We will not be intimidated by terror.”
∎ The Israeli military said it raided and destroyed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad weapons plant in West Khan Younis that was manufacturing rockets and missiles.
Tunnels flooded:Israel pumping water into Hamas tunnels
US destroys Houthi missiles, including one after close call
Neither the U.S. warnings nor its retaliatory strikes are deterring the Iran-supported Houthi rebels in Yemen from continuing their repeated assaults on vessels in the Red Sea, including American warships.
U.S. Central Command said Wednesday that it had destroyed a Houthi missile that was ready to get fired, concluding it “presented an imminent threat to U.S. aircraft.”
The previous night, the USS Gravely shot down an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the militant group, Central Command said. CNN reported that missile came within a mile of the destroyer, saying that’s the closest any Houthi attack has come to a U.S. warship since the Rebels began their missile and drone campaign on Red Sea shipping lanes in mid-November.
The Houthis say they’re supporting Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza with their assaults, which have disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, forcing cargo vessels to seek other routes to transport their goods.
After issuing several warnings, the U.S. and U.K. launched joint attacks on Houthi military assets starting Jan. 11, including a series of strikes targeting eight sites in Yemen on Jan. 22.
South Africa official: ‘Israel believes it has license to do as it wishes’
South Africa is pointing to the continuing high number of civilian deaths in Gaza as evidence Israel is ignoring last week’s preliminary ruling from the U.N.’s top court urging the Israelis to protect civilians as they pursued Hamas militants.
The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza is approaching 27,000, according to the Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. That figure includes 150 people in the last 24 hours and hundreds since the International Court of Justice ordered Israel on Friday to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide against Palestinians in the territory. The ruling stems from South Africa’s accusation of genocide against Israel.
“I believe the rulings of the court have been ignored,” South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said. “Hundreds of people have been killed in the last three or four days. And clearly Israel believes it has license to do as it wishes.”
Pandor said South Africa would explore proposing other measures but did not specify which ones.
Report: US reviewing options for recognizing a Palestinian state
Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked staffers to review options on possible U.S. and international recognition of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza, two U.S. officials briefed on the issue told Axios. Blinken also asked for a review on how a demilitarized Palestinian state might function, the officials said. The Israeli website Walla published a similar report.
Such a review could increase the pressure on Israel to conclude or ease its military operations in Gaza, a campaign Palestinian authorities say already has killed more than 26,000 residents of Gaza, most of them civilians.
Some Biden administration officials now believe recognition of a Palestinian state might be the first step rather than the last one in resolving the long-term Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Axios reports. U.S. policy has long been that recognition of a Palestinian state must come through negotiations between the parties rather than through unilateral recognition, but Netanyahu has shown no interest in signing off on any deal that creates a Palestinian state.
The report comes a day after British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the United Kingdom might be willing to provide formal diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state prior to a final peace deal.
Report: New proposal could see all hostages freed
All civilian hostages being held by Hamas inside Gaza would be released during a six-week pause in fighting under a proposal crafted by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt, the Washington Post reported, citing officials familiar with the negotiations. Parts of the plan have been accepted by Israel and Hamas is considering it, the Post said.
The proposal also would free three Palestinians now held in Israeli jails for each hostage released. Israeli troops would be temporarily repositioned away from the most densely populated areas of Gaza and the humanitarian aid pipeline into the enclave would be expanded, the Post says. The newspaper’s sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks, said negotiations were in early stages and that any deal would take more time to consummate.
Israel says 109 hostages remain in captivity and that Hamas has the bodies of 27 people.
Of 41 wounded in Jordan base attack, 27 are back on duty
The 41 soldiers wounded in Sunday’s attack in Jordan came from National Guard units in Arizona, California, Kentucky and New York, the National Guard Bureau said Wednesday.
The Biden administration blames Iran for supporting the militants who launched the attack, and the Pentagon is preparing to retaliate. The drone assault killed three Army Reserve soldiers at the logistics base known as Tower 22.
Among the wounded, 27 have returned to duty while 14 continue to be evaluated, including one soldier who required evacuation from Jordan and who is in stable condition.
− Tom Vanden Brook
10% of UN agency’s aid workers in Gaza reportedly linked to militants
At least a dozen employees of the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency had ties to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and 10% of its 12,000-plus workers in Gaza have ties to militant groups, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Israeli intelligence reports reviewed by the media outlet. The reports claims that two workers for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency helped kidnap Israelis and two others were tracked to sites where scores of Israeli civilians were shot and killed. Others coordinated logistics and helped arm the attackers, the reports say.
The information, included in a briefing Israel gave U.S. officials, prompted the Biden administration and several other nations to suspend aid to UNRWA.
A look at key militant groups in the Middle East
Attacks by Iran-backed militant groups throughout the Middle East – including the first to kill U.S. service members – have dramatically heightened the risk of a broader regional war spreading beyond the Gaza Strip. Since Israel declared war against Hamas following the attack on Oct. 7, groups with ties to Iran have fired missiles across the Lebanese border, targeted bases in Iraq and Syria where U.S. service members are stationed and attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The latest escalation in the conflict occurred Sunday when militias attacked a U.S. military outpost in Jordan, killing three troops and wounding dozens.
A synopsis of the key groups is available here.
− Christopher Cann
Iran could feel ‘hot sting of American power’
The goal will be to erode the militants’ ability to attack, punish their leadership and beef up defenses in the region to protect the thousands of American forces there, the officials said. The response could involve operations from Yemen to Iraq in locations where the White House and Pentagon believe Iran supports local militias.
“I don’t expect a U.S. large response, meaning a large-scale ground war,” said retired Army Maj. Gen. Mark Quantock, who served as chief of intelligence for U.S. Central Command. “But I do expect Iran and its surrogates will feel the hot sting of American power.” Read more here.
− Tom Vanden Brook
US imposes sanctions on firms linked to Iran, Hezbollah
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions blocking financial transactions for three entities and an individual accused of providing “critical financial support” to an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force and Hezbollah.
The sanctioned targets generated hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of revenue from selling Iranian commodities, the office said in a statement. Turkey-based Mira Ihracat Ithalat Petrol, which purchases, transports and sells Iranian commodities on the global market, and its owner, Ibrahim Talal al-Uwayr, are among the sanction targets. Also sanctioned were two Lebanon-basedcompanies, Yara Offshore SAL and Hydro Company for Drilling Equipment Rental.
“Today’s action underscores our resolve to prevent the IRGC-QF and its proxy terrorist groups from exploiting the international trading system to fund their destabilizing activities,” said Brian Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “The United States will continue to take action to expose and disrupt these illicit schemes.”
‘I hold them responsible’:Biden says he’s made a decision on response to attack in Jordan
Contributing: The Associated Press
