Washington:

The White House said Wednesday that the Iraqi Islamic Resistance militia was behind a weekend drone strike on a base in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said “our intelligence community believes this was the work of the Iraqi Islamic Resistance, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias.”

The Pentagon said about 40 troops were injured in addition to three people killed in a drone explosion at a remote base on Sunday.

President Joe Biden said he has decided on the nature of the U.S. response to the deadly bombing, but has not publicly detailed plans or timing.

Kirby reiterated the government’s insistence that “we will respond at a time and in a manner of our choosing, on our timetable.”

“Just because you haven’t seen anything in the last 48 hours doesn’t mean you won’t see anything,” he said, adding: “The first thing you see won’t be the last thing thing. “

Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the factions of the Islamic resistance group in Iraq, announced on Tuesday that it was suspending attacks on U.S. forces.

“You can’t just take what a group like Kataeb Hezbollah says,” Kirby said.

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