Iran-backed militia kills 3 US troops just weeks after Biden said Tehran knows 'not to do anything'

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President Biden struck a confidant tone earlier this month when asked whether Iran would retaliate after the U.S. and its allies bombed Yemen in response to ongoing attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi militants.

The January 12 exchange came during the president’s visit to Emmaus, Pennsylvania to tout what he regards as the success of his administration's economic policies.

The president said he’d "already delivered a message to" the Islamic Republic after the Yemen bombings.

"They know not to do anything," President Biden said, assuring that attacks on the Houthis would continue so long as they "continue this outrageous behavior."

He declined to say whether the U.S. was in a "de facto proxy war with Iran."

But just a little over two weeks later, three American troops were killed and dozens of others were injured in a drone strike in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border. Most, if not all, of those injured and killed were Army soldiers at a base known as Tower 22, which has been in support of the counter-ISIS mission for years, the official said.

The president as well as Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin blamed Iran-backed militias for Sunday's attack. A coalition of Iran-backed militant groups calling themselves the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" claimed responsibility.

Later Sunday, President Biden said the