Joe Biden: “If you harm an American, we will respond” as US attack Iran-backed militia

President Joe Biden sends warning: “If you harm an American, we will respond” as US forces strike over 80 targets in Iraq and Syria in a wide-ranging air assault on sites belonging to Iran-linked militias and Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard.

The president said in a statement that the strikes had been launched in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan, and warned that this isn't the end of assault: “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”

The US military’s Central Command said on X that it has struck with more than 125 bombs in an attack that took place around midnight local time in what is being described as the first of multiple attacks against the groups.

US officials told CNN that the US had no plan to bomb Iran, which would represent a significant escalation. Administration officials have repeatedly stressed that Washington does not intend to go to war with Iran, despite the accusation that it had armed the groups behind the Tower 22 attack.

The attacks come after three US army personnel were killed, along with over 30 injured as a drone strike bombed sleeping Americans. In a statement Biden described the attackers as "radical Iran-backed militant groups".