U.S. to respond to attack on its forces in Middle East, says White House

The U.S. government is now focused on responding to a recent strike targeting a US military base on the Jordanian-Syrian border, U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters.

When asked whether the US was planning to act independently or in coordination with its partners to retaliate for the attack, Kirby replied: "We're focusing on US response, they killed American troops."

He also said the Islamic Resistance in Iraq group was responsible for the attack, which left three US service members dead and over 40 wounded. "We believe the attack in Jordan was planned, resourced and facilitated by an umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which contains multiple groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah," he said.

When asked whether Kata'ib Hezbollah played a key role in the attack, the US official replied: "This certainly has the earmarks of the kinds of things Kata’ib Hezbollah does." However, he emphasized that "attribution that our intelligence community is comfortable with is that this was done by the umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq."

U.S. military destroys three Houthi anti-ship missiles - CENTCOM

The United States wiped out three anti-ship missiles belonging to the Ansar Allah movement as it delivered more strikes on the Houthi-controlled area in Yemen on Friday, the US Defense Department’s Central Command (CENTCOM) reported.

"On January 19 at approximately 6:45 p.m. (Sanaa time) [3:45 p.m. GMT], U.S. Central Command forces conducted strikes against three Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch," CENTCOM said in a statement on X. According to it, "U.S. forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missiles in self-defense."

On Friday, the latest strikes were reported by Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby who said this was the fourth pre-emptive action by the US military targeting Houthi missile launchers.