US retaliatory airstrikes updates: White House vows to take 'more action'

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said U.S. military forces, at Biden's direction, conducted strikes on seven facilities inside Iraq and Syria that "Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated militias use to attack U.S. forces."

"This is the start of our response," Austin said in a statement. "The President has directed additional actions to hold the IRGC and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on U.S. and Coalition Forces. These will unfold at times and places of our choosing."

Like Biden, Austin stressed the U.S. doesn't seek conflict in the Middle East but attacks on U.S. troops won't go unanswered.

"We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our forces, and our interests," he concluded.

President Biden, who earlier Friday attended the dignified return of the three Army reservists killed in the Jordan drone attack, signaled more action is to come.

"Our response began today," Biden said in his first statement on the strikes in Iraq and Syria.

"This afternoon, at my direction, U.S. military forces struck targets at facilities in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia use to attack U.S. forces," he added. "It will continue at times and places of our choosing."

He ended saying, "The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world," he continued. "But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond."

President Biden is facing a turning point in the Middle East conflict that carries significant risks of escalation and heavy election-year political consequences.

The debate inside the White House ahead of the retaliatory strikes was tense, according to a U.S. official, as the administration weighed options that some believe will send a clear message to Iran-backed proxy groups to stop the attacks and others fear could trigger broader fighting in the region.

"The choices that any administration and every administration have faced since the Iranian Revolution are fraught," Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official, told ABC News. "They are not between good and bad policies. They're between bad and worse policies."

Biden's decision making is made only more complicated by the impending election, they said. Many Republicans, including Donald Trump, have accused him of being weak in his response to Iran-backed groups and their attacks on U.S. forces.

"He's in a politically tough spot because policy would compel him to think about this and act with a scalpel," the Center for a New American Security's Jonathan Lord said. "But this being an election this year, and this being probably the premier foreign policy issue Republicans are lining up to cudgel him with, he can't let policy be the only consideration here. Politics, of course, plays a role."

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In a new statement, U.S. Central Command said American forces "conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups."

"U.S. military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States," CENTCOM said. "The airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions. The facilities that were struck included command and control operations, centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aired vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces."

According to a U.S. official, B-1 bombers were used in the retaliatory strikes.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty