Biden Honors Fallen Soldiers

US President Joe Biden joined a solemn military ritual at a Delaware air base for the return of three US soldiers killed in Jordan by a drone attack blamed on an Iran-backed militia.

Six servicemen wearing camouflage, dark berets and white gloves marched slowly three times on and off the ramp of a huge C-5 transport plane to carry the bodies in flag-draped "transfer cases" -- as the military calls caskets used in transportation -- to a waiting van.

Biden, accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, watched with his hand over his heart and a grim expression. Family members watched from their own area, screened off from the press.

Other than the terse military commands to the pallbearers, there was total silence across the vast airfield, emphasizing the powerful -- but restrained -- emotion of the day.

The secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown, also attended what's known as a "dignified transfer" -- their presence highlighting the importance, as well as relative rarity, of returning dead service members in the wake of US exits from major foreign conflicts.

William Rivers, Kennedy Sanders and Breonna Moffett, all from the southern state of Georgia, were killed in a drone strike on their remote US base in Jordan, near Syria, last Sunday.

The White House blames the Islamic Resistance in Iraq militia for the attack.

These were the first US military deaths to hostile fire since the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel that sparked a deadly Israeli assault on Gaza.

However, the US military and Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria periodically exchange fire.