Joe Biden has said he has decided how to respond to a drone strike in northern Jordan which killed three American soldiers and wounded dozens more, as the Iran-backed militia that Washington blamed for the attack said it had suspended anti-US operations, writes The Guardian.

As Washington pondered its response, Kataib Hezbollah announced the suspension of all its military operations against US troops in the region, claiming the decision was intended to prevent “embarrassment” to the Iraqi government.

Biden told reporters that he held Iran responsible for the drone strike on a US base on the Jordanian-Syrian border on Sunday, “in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons” to Kataib Hezbollah.

Asked if a direct link to Iran for Sunday’s attack on the Tower 22 base had been established, Biden replied that “we’ll have that discussion”.

However, the president added: “I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for.”