US retaliatory airstrikes updates: White House vows to take 'more action' after deadly drone attack
Saturday's strikes in Yemen followed ones in Iraq and Syria the day prior.
The United States on Friday began to carry out airstrikes against Iran-backed militants and Iranian military targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a drone attack on an American base in Jordan on Jan. 28 that killed three U.S. service members.
Dozens of other American troops were wounded in the drone attack on the Tower 22 base near Jordan's border with Iraq and Syria. The U.S. says Iran is responsible for funding and arming the militants while Iran has denied involvement.
U.S. President Joe Biden had quickly warned that America would respond forcefully, escalating U.S. involvement in the Middle East after months of trying to contain tensions from boiling over into a broader war in the region.
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What we know about the drone attack on US base in Jordan
The U.S. has attributed the drone attack on the American base in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias.
According to a U.S. official, the drone that successfully hit the base was an Iranian-made Shahed drone, similar to those used by the Russians on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Iran has denied involvement in the Jordan strike. But President Joe Biden earlier this week faulted Iran for providing munitions and funding to these different proxy groups.
The U.S. base is known as Tower 22, a major logistical hub for U.S. troops still in Syria on a mission to prevent a resurgence by Islamic State fighters. According to Central Command, there are approximately 350 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel deployed to the base.
Iraqi border area with Syria being targeted: Iraqi military
The city of Al-Qa'im on the Iraqi border with Syria as well as other areas along the Iraqi border with Syria "are being subjected to air strikes by United States aircraft," the spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces said in a statement.
"These strikes constitute a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, an undermining of the efforts of the Iraqi government, and a threat that will drag Iraq and the region into unforeseen consequences, the consequences of which will be disastrous for security and stability in Iraq and the region," the statement continued.
Defense Secretary Austin: 7 facilities used by groups to attack US forces were struck
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.
Biden says US response will continue 'at times and places of our choosing'
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."
Biden's retaliatory strikes come with risks of escalation and political consequences: Experts
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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US, UK launch strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen
The militaries of the U.S. and U.K. launched strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand, the countries said in a joint statement Saturday.
The strikes targeted 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Houthis' continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea, the statement said.
"These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade, and the lives of innocent mariners, and are in response to a series of illegal, dangerous, and destabilizing Houthi actions since previous coalition strikes on January 11 and 22, 2024, including the January 27 attack which struck and set ablaze the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker M/V Marlin Luanda," the statement said.
-ABC News' Nate Luna