Jan. 29 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Defense on Monday released the names of three Army Reserve soldiers killed in Jordan in a drone attack on Sunday.
The three soldiers from Georgia — who ranged in age from 23 to 26 — were killed in the northeast part of Jordan near Syria when a one-way unmanned aerial system hit their container housing units, according to U.S. officials.
Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah are the first-known U.S. military casualties that are tied to the ongoing war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
The trio was stationed in Jordan in support of the anti-ISIS efforts of the ongoing “Operation Inherent Resolve” military mission.
The Defense Department said the incident remains under investigation.
Rivers, Sanders and Moffett originally were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion and the 926th Engineer Brigade in Fort Moore, Ga., the department said.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden said in a statement that the White House still was gathering all the pertinent information surrounding the attack, but added that “we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.
“We shall respond,” Biden said Sunday in response to the attack on the soldiers during an event in South Carolina, calling the three Georgia soldiers “brave souls.”
