UPDATE - US begins retaliatory airstrikes in Iraq, Syria after 3 American troops killed

ADDS BIDEN STATEMENT IN GRAFS 5-6

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US began to carry out a wave of airstrikes Friday against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-Quds Force and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria ]after a suicide drone attack killed three American troops in Jordan.

The strikes were conducted with numerous aircraft, including long-range bombers that launched from the US, Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. In all, more than 85 targets were hit with more than 125 precision munitions.

Facilities that were hit include command and control and intelligence centers; rocket, missile and drone storage areas; and "logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces," said CENTCOM.

The IRGC-Quds Forces is the corps' external operations division.

President Joe Biden said the attacks were just the beginning of the US response.

"It will continue at times and places of our choosing,” he said in a statement. "The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”

A suicide drone attack killed three American troops and injured at least 34 others Sunday at Tower 22, a remote military installation in Jordan near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. The US has formally blamed an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The group also claimed responsibility.

Iranian-backed militias have been carrying out drone and missile attacks on US forces in the region for months amid Israel's ongoing war against the besieged Gaza Strip.

Sunday's fatalities were the first to have resulted from the attacks. Most others were intercepted or resulted in minor injuries to American forces.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he has determined how he will respond to Sunday's drone attack, but did not offer details on what it would entail.

While he has emphasized that he is not seeking to create "a wider war in the Middle East," he said he holds Iran responsible "in the sense that they're supplying weapons to the people who did it."

Iran vowed Wednesday to decisively respond to any attack that targets its territories or interests.

A statement by Iran's permanent mission to the UN warned that Tehran would respond decisively to any attack on its territory, interests or nationals outside its borders, according to the official Iranian IRNA agency.