President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended the dignified transfer of the remains of three U.S. soldiers who were killed in an aerial drone attack at an outpost in Jordan. The ceremony took place at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the flag-draped cases containing the bodies were offloaded from a military cargo plane. The president, visibly emotional, placed his hand over his heart as the bodies were transferred. The soldiers killed in the attack were Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, all from Georgia.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is recovering from prostate cancer surgery, joined the Bidens and other officials on the tarmac. Prior to the transfer, President Biden met privately with the families of the fallen soldiers to offer his condolences. This gesture comes after his previous attempts to comfort the families of 13 Americans killed in Afghanistan went awry when he checked his watch and talked about his own son's death.

President Biden took an unusually short 19-minute flight aboard Air Force One from his home in Wilmington to reach Dover Air Force Base, rather than making the usual motorcade drive. After the ceremony, he returned to Wilmington. The president has stated that he has determined the U.S. response to the attack, but the military has not yet announced retaliatory strikes. The Iran-backed Iraqi group Kataib Hezbollah, a potential perpetrator, announced a halt to its attacks on American troops.

The attack in Jordan is part of a series of operations by Iranian proxy groups in Iraq, Syria, and off Yemen's coast following an earlier attack by Hamas against Israel. Last month, President Biden ordered airstrikes on the Houthi movement in Yemen after the group repeatedly attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea. The deaths of the three soldiers in Jordan mark the first U.S. fatalities attributed to Iran-backed militia groups.

The dignified transfer of the soldiers' remains is a solemn event that signifies the transfer of fallen military members from an aircraft to a vehicle for transport to a mortuary facility. It is not a ceremony, but rather a somber ritual to honor the sacrifice of the servicemembers. President Biden and his administration have emphasized the importance of honoring and remembering the fallen soldiers and have vowed to take necessary actions to defend the United States and its interests.