WASHINGTON
\nUS Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his British counterpart Grant Shapps at the Pentagon Wednesday for talks on security threats in the Middle East, the Pentagon said.
\nThey discussed issues including \u201cthe escalating attacks by Iran-aligned militia groups on US troops in the Middle East\u201d and \u201cthe illegal Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea,\u201d as well as humanitarian assistance for Gaza and support for Ukraine, Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said in a statement.
\n\u201cSecretary Austin thanked Secretary Shapps for the United Kingdom\u2019s steadfast support and leadership in coalition efforts to stave off further Houthi aggression, while defending naval and international commercial vessels exercising navigational rights and freedoms,\u201d Ryder said, referring to attacks on shipping by the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels.
\nUS and British forces have launched joint strikes aimed at reducing the Houthis\u2019 ability to target vessels transiting the key Red Sea trade route \u2014 attacks the rebels say are in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is at war with Hamas.
\nUS and allied forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan have been attacked more than 165 times since mid-October, many of them claimed by a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that opposes American support for Israel in the Gaza conflict and the presence of Washington\u2019s troops in the region.
\nOn Sunday, a drone struck a military base in northeastern Jordan, killing three US soldiers and wounding more than 40 \u2014 the first American military deaths in an attack in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in early October.
\nWashington blamed Iran-backed militants for the attack, vowing a decisive response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his British counterpart Grant Shapps at the Pentagon Wednesday for talks on security threats in the Middle East, the Pentagon said. They discussed issues including \u201cthe escalating attacks by Iran-aligned militia groups on US troops in the Middle East\u201d and \u201cthe illegal Houthi attacks on international shipping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-384769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n