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Biden will attend ceremony honoring troops killed in Jordan after reports suggesting he wouldn’t sparked outrage

President Biden has spoken with the families of the three US soldiers killed in Jordan and will be at Dover Air Force Base when their bodies are returned home, the White House said Tuesday — as reports suggested the president may be planning retaliatory airstrikes on Iranian targets in the Persian Gulf in the next few days.

The administration sparked outrage Monday when National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked whether Biden would attend the “dignified body transfer’’ of the fallen Army heroes and replied that he didn’t “have anything on [the president’s] schedule to speak to.”

Kirby then told reporters Tuesday that Biden would in fact be there when the bodies of Sgt. William Rivers, 46, Spc. Brianna Moffatt, 23, and Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, all from Georgia, are to be flown Friday to the air base in the president’s home state of Delaware.

“The president had an opportunity this morning to speak with the family members of the three service members who were tragically killed in this attack. He was grateful for their time,’’ Kirby said Tuesday.

“He expressed to them how proud we all are of their service, how we mourn and feel the sorrow over their loss and made sure that those families knew that not only was that service and sacrifice are going to be honored and respected but that they would continue to get the support that they need as they work through what no family wants to have to go [through].

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Biden has vowed to retaliate against Iran for the fatal attack.AP

“In that conversation, he also gauged their feeling about him going into the dignified transfer in Dover on Friday. All of them supported his presence there. And so the president will be going to the dignified transfer on Friday.”

The soldiers were killed by Iranian-backed militants in a Saturday night attack on a small outpost near the Syrian border.

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Before the White House announcement of Biden’s presence at the ceremony, many online critics ripped Kirby’s response Monday as “disgraceful.”

“Joe Biden just got three black members of the military killed,” free speech advocate Philip Anderson posted on X. “Their black lives mattered so much to Joe Biden that he won’t even bother to show up to receive their bodies, from what I’m hearing.”

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National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Biden will be there when the bodies of Sgt. William Rivers, Spc. Brianna Moffatt and Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders are to be flown into Dover Air Force Base.Getty Images

Another user suggested that the president “doesn’t have anything on his schedule,” noting that “the people in Ohio are still waiting for a visit after train derailments” last year.

Jon Sweet, a former military intelligence officer, also said the response was “not a good look for the president.”

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Biden has vowed to retaliate against Iran for the fatal attack.

On Monday night, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that a response “could be multileveled, come in stages and be sustained over time.”

There are few details about what such a response may entail, but the president is looking at the possibility of attacking Iranian personnel in Syria and Iraq, or Iranian naval assets in the Persian Gulf, according to Politico.

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(From left) US Army Reserve Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett and Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders were killed in a drone attack on an outpost in northeast Jordan.via REUTERS

He has demanded his advisers present him with options on how to respond to the attack without dragging the US further into war in the Middle East, two administration officials told the outlet.

The Pentagon and State Department have already spent decades drawing up a list of possible Iranian targets in case war breaks out between the nation and Israel, according to the New York Times.

Those include major drone-making factories and their overseas suppliers, which are working to help Russia in Ukraine and provide arms to the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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Yemen’s Houthi fighters carry their weapons on vehicles while participating in a rally and parade against the American and British airstrikes and in solidarity with people in the Gaza Strip, on January 28, 2024, near Sana’a, Yemen.Getty Images

The Pentagon also reportedly has plans in place for airstrikes on Iranian missile sites and air bases, and the US has even created a cyber attack option that would disable Iran’s air defenses, communications systems and crucial parts of its power grid — though it is unclear how long the cyber attack may last.

But Iranian officials have so far denied any involvement in the attack — even after the Iranian-backed Axis of Resistance took responsibility and said the strike was a “continuation of our approach to resisting the American occupation forces in Iraq and the region.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Monday said the militias “do not take orders” from Iran and acted independently.

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The location of a drone attack on US troops in Jordan at a base called Tower 22.Google Earth

He called allegations that the country was involved “baseless accusations” designed to expand the Israel-Hamas war.

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“The responsibility for the consequences of provoking allegations against Iran lies with those who bring up such baseless claims,” Kanaani said