The US military struck back late Friday at Iran and its proxies in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a drone attack last weekend that killed three US Army soldiers in Jordan, the Pentagon announced.

The strikes began at 4 p.m. ET – two hours after the conclusion of a dignified transfer ceremony honoring the three soldiers at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware – and happened swiftly. US forces that conducted the operation had returned to safety within 40 minutes of their departure.

“Numerous aircraft including B-1 bombers dispatched from the United States were involved in this operation, firing more than 125 precision-guided munitions over the course of about 30 minutes,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

The operation targeted the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Tehran-backed militias — including Kataib Hezbollah — that carried out the fatal Sunday attack. 

The US also targeted a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that specializes in military intelligence and unconventional warfare, the first time America has taken direct military action against Tehran’s official forces since Iran’s subsidiaries began attacking American troops in November.

In all, American forces struck more than 85 targets at seven facilities across Iraq and Syria, including command and control centers, headquarters buildings, intelligence centers, rocket missile and drone storage facilities and logistics, ammunition and supply-chain facilities. 

“These targets were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties and based on clear irrefutable evidence that they were connected to attacks on US personnel in the region,” said Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of operations for the Joint Staff.

Military officials are still assessing the resulting damage and tally of terrorists killed, but Sims said he believes the strikes were “successful.”

“I feel that we confidently struck targets that will impact their ability to conduct future strikes against Americans.” 

Friday’s strikes will not be the last military action the US will take in retaliation for the fatal attack on US soldiers, Kirby pledged.

“As President Biden has made clear, we will not hesitate to defend our people and hold responsible all those who harm Americans at a time and place of our choosing. That began tonight. That will not end tonight.”

The US strikes were preceded by a series of separate explosions in Syria conducted by a third party, causing brief confusion after some media outlets initially reported they were part of the highly anticipated American campaign.

It remains unclear who was behind those first explosions.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the matter.

In a statement, President Biden said: “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”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.”

The US had pledged to hold the Islamic Resistance in Iraq accountable for the attack that killed Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, and wounded approximately 40 other American service members.

With nearly a week elapsing before the response, critics of the Biden administration have warned that the delay had given Iranian military officials and members of Tehran-backed militia groups ample time to go into hiding.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committe, said in a statement Friday that the strikes were “welcome, but come far too late for the three brave Americans who died and the nearly 50 wounded.”

“Instead of giving the Ayatollah the bloody nose that he deserves, we continue to give him a slap on the wrist,” Wicker added. “The Biden administration spent nearly a week foolishly telegraphing US intentions to our adversaries, giving them time to relocate and hide. It is past time for our commander-in-chief to adopt a new approach that targets the actual sponsors of terrorism in the region.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Biden had authorized a “tiered” response starting as soon as this weekend, with strikes over several days on Iranian personnel and facilities in Syria and Iraq as well as non-military steps to prevent an escalation of the conflict.

“I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday outside the White House, adding that he held Iran “responsible in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it.”

Tensions have spiked between the US and Iranian proxy forces in the Middle East ever since Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, which The Journal had previously reported was planned and signed off on by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Since October, Iran’s militias have launched attacks against US forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan more than 150 times, Pentagon officials say, with Houthi rebels in Yemen also firing rockets against both commercial and military ships in the Red Sea.

The last direct attack on an Iranian military official occurred on Jan. 3, 2020, when former President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike in Iraq that killed Qassem Soleimani, the major general of Iran’s IRGC paramilitary Quds Force.

Tehran subsequently launched missile attacks on US troops in Iraq, wounding dozens but leading to no deaths of service members.