WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military launched an airstrike Friday on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. This was the first retaliatory salvo for the drone strike that killed three US soldiers in Jordan last weekend.

President Joe Biden said in a statement: “The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world.” But let anyone who might try to harm us know one thing: If you harm an American, you will We react.”

Biden and other senior U.S. leaders had warned for days that America would strike back against the militias, making clear that it would not be a single strike but a “graded response” over a longer period of time. Biden reiterated this in his statement, saying, “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”

The massive strikes hit more than 85 targets at seven locations, including command and control centers, intelligence centers, missiles and missiles, drone and ammunition depots, and other facilities linked to the militias or the IRGC’s Quds Force, the Guard’s Expeditionary Force stood unit that takes care of Tehran’s relations with regional militias and their armament.

The U.S. strikes did not appear to be directly aimed at Iran or senior leaders of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force within its borders, as the U.S. seeks to prevent further escalation of the conflict. Iran has denied being behind the attack in Jordan.

John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the targets were “carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties and were based on clear, irrefutable evidence that they were linked to attacks on U.S. personnel in the region.” He declined to elaborate on the evidence.

The attacks lasted about 30 minutes and three of the sites attacked were in Iraq and four in Syria, said Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the Joint Staff.

U.S. Central Command said the strikes used more than 125 precision munitions and were fired from numerous aircraft, including U.S.-flown B-1 long-range bombers. Sims said the weather was a factor when the U.S. planned the attacks, allowing the U.S. to confirm it hit the right targets and avoided civilian casualties.

However, it is unclear whether militia members were killed.

“We know that there are militants using these locations, both the IRGC and personnel from an Iran-allied militia group,” Sims said. “We conducted these attacks tonight with the understanding that there would likely be casualties associated with people in these facilities.”

Two Iraqi militiamen, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, said three houses used as headquarters in al-Qaim, Iraq, including a weapons depot, were attacked. An operational headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias, in Akashat, Iraq, as well as weapons depots were attacked.

The attack came just hours after Biden and senior defense leaders joined grieving families to watch as the remains of the three Army Reserve soldiers at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware were returned to the United States.

It was unclear what the next steps would be or whether the militia members have fled into hiding because days of U.S. warnings have made it harder to detect and attack them. However, it was clear that the recent statement by Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the main Iranian-backed militias, that it would suspend attacks on American troops had no impact on the administration’s plans.

Just on Friday morning, hardline Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated Tehran’s earlier promises to potentially retaliate against US attacks against its interests. We “will not start a war, but if a country, if a cruel power wants to bully us, the Islamic Republic of Iran will give a strong response,” Raisi said.

In a statement this week, Kataib Hezbollah announced “the suspension of military and security operations against the occupying forces to prevent an embarrassment to the Iraqi government.” But Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the other major Iran-backed groups, vowed Friday to continue military operations against U.S. troops.

The U.S. blames the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iranian-backed militias, for the deadly attack in Jordan but has not yet narrowed it down to a specific group. However, Kataeb Hezbollah is one of the main suspects.

Some of the militias have posed a threat to U.S. bases for years, but the groups stepped up their attacks following Israel’s war with Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. The war has led to the deaths of more than 27,000 Palestinians in Gaza and thrown the Middle East into turmoil.

Iran-backed militia groups across the region have used the conflict to justify attacks on Israeli or U.S. interests, including by threatening civilian merchant vessels and U.S. warships in the Red Sea region with drones or missiles in almost daily clashes .

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said: “This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East.” He added: “We will take all necessary measures to defend the United States, our interests and our people.” And we will react when we decide, where we decide and how we decide.”

“At this point it is time to take away even more capacity than we have done in the past,” Austin said.

As of Tuesday, Iran-backed militia groups had carried out 166 attacks on U.S. military facilities since Oct. 18, including 67 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and now one in Jordan, according to a U.S. military official. The most recent attack occurred on January 29 at al-Asad air base in Iraq and there were no injuries or property damage.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has bolstered defenses at the base in Jordan that was attacked by the backed militants on Sunday, according to a U.S. official.

And the Israeli military said its Arrow defense system intercepted a missile that approached the country from the Red Sea, raising suspicions that it was fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The rebels did not immediately claim responsibility.

A U.S. official also said the military launched additional self-defense attacks in Yemen on Friday against Houthi military targets deemed to be an imminent threat. Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, said British and American forces carried out three attacks in northern Yemen’s Hajjah province, a Houthi stronghold.

While previous U.S. responses in Iraq and Syria were more limited, the attack on Tower 22, as the Jordanian outpost is known, and the deaths of the three soldiers crossed a line, the official said.

That drone strike, which also injured more than 40 military personnel – mostly Army National Guardsmen – was the first since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas that killed the Iran-backed militias in the United States. Tower 22 houses about 350 US troops and is located near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border is only 10 kilometers away.

Also on Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on a network of companies in Iran and Hong Kong accused of helping Iran procure technology to make ballistic weapons and drones. And the U.S. has sanctioned six Iranian officials for allegedly committing a range of malicious cyber activities against critical infrastructure in the U.S. and other countries.

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Aamer Mahdani and Fatima Hussein reported from Washington, DC. Abdulrahman Zeyad and Qassim Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad, Jon Gambrell reported from Jerusalem, and Ahmed al-Haj reported from Yemen.