Two Iranian men have been charged in connection with a fatal drone strike earlier this year that killed three U.S. service members and injured dozens of others.
Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi was arrested in Massachusetts and was expected to appear in court on Monday. The other suspect, Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, was arrested in Italy and was in the custody of Italian authorities, federal prosecutors said.
The charges are related to the deadly Jan. 28 attack on U.S. troops, the first since the war between Israel and Hamas started in October 2023.
Three Army Reservists – Sgt. William Jerome Rivers; Sp. Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, all residents of Georgia, were killed and 47 others were injured in Jordan on January 28 in a drone strike that targeted a small military base known as Tower 22 near the Syrian and Iraqi borders.
All three were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, at Fort Moore, Georgia.
MOTHER OF AN AMERICAN JOURNALIST CAUGHT IN SYRIA SEES HOPE AFTER NEWS OF TRAVIS TIMMERMAN’S RELEASE
Seen here from left to right are Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, Staff Sgt. William Jerome Rivers and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett. These three US Army Reserve soldiers were killed on January 28, 2024, by a drone strike on their base in Jordan, near the Syrian border. (Shawn Sanders and the US Army via AP, file)
The soldiers were deployed to Jordan in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military’s name for the war against Islamic State terrorist group.
Rivers, 46, served in the Army Reserve as an interior electrician; while Sanders, 24, and Moffett, 23, worked as horizontal construction engineers.
In response to the deadly attack, the US launched retaliatory strikes on more than 85 targets in the country Iraq and Syria against the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated militias.
Targets included command and control operations, intelligence centers, militia group missiles, rockets, unmanned vehicle depots and supply chain facilitiesThe US Central Command (CENTCOM) said this at the time.
A map showing the location of Tower 22 in northeastern Jordan, near the border of Syria and Iraq. (Fox News)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The soldiers’ deaths marked an escalation of violence against US forces in the Middle East. At the time, the Biden administration blamed US support for Israel amid the ongoing war against Hamas.
This story breaks. Check back later for updates.
