Via Jack Detsch in foreignpolicy.com: The Biden administration said in a statement on Sunday that U.S. intelligence had already determined that the drone strike was orchestrated by “radical Iran-backed militant groups” in Syria and Iraq. The Associated Press reported on Monday that groups in Iraq were specifically responsible, and a coalition of Iran-backed militias called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed on Sunday that it had targeted U.S. personnel in the vicinity, but it did not explicitly confirm that it had carried out this specific attack. Iran said it had “no connection and had nothing to do” with the strike, stating that decisions by so-called “resistance groups” in the region to attack U.S. forces are made by the groups on their own. However, Iran remains the primary backer of such groups, and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps maintains close ties with them.
