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.
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 strikes aimed at more than 85 targets, targeted Iran's IRGC and militia groups: CENTCOM
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
US begins retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria, officials say
Retaliatory U.S. airstrikes have begun in Syria and Iraq, U.S. officials say.
-ABC News' Luis Martinez
'We believe that the strikes were successful': Kirby
The Department of Defense is in the early stages of battle damage assessment "but we believe that the strikes were successful," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in a call Friday.
"The initial indications are that we hit exactly what we meant to hit, with a number of secondary explosions associated with the ammunition and logistics locations," Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Chiefs, said on the call.
Kirby said the strikes took place in the course of 30 minutes and involved over 125 precision-guided munitions. Of the seven total strike locations, three were in Iraq and four were in Syria, according to Sims.
Targeted facilities included command and control centers, intelligence centers, rocket missile and drone storage facilities, and logistics ammunition supply chain facilities, Kirby said.
Kirby noted the targets were chosen to avoid civilian casualties and because they were connected to enabling the attacks against the U.S. service members.
The administration does not know at this time if or how many militants may have been killed or wounded.
Officials would not tell ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce definitively whether there will be more strikes Friday night but said all U.S. aircraft were out of harm's way.
Kirby said the strikes are expected to continue in the "coming days."
-ABC News' Fritz Farrow, Sarah Kolinovsky and Molly Nagle