Washington vowed additional military action against Iran-backed groups in the Middle East following two days of attacks in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen in retaliation for months of assaults on U.S. assets in the region, including a drone attack that killed three American service members in Jordan last month.
White House national-security spokesman John Kirby said in a series of TV interviews on February 4 that U.S. strikes on February 2-3 were just the “first round” of military action and that more will follow.
“It began with strikes on Friday night [February 2], but that is not the end of it,” he told NBC TV.
“We intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked or people are killed.”
He told CBS there will be "more steps -- some seen, some perhaps unseen," adding, though, that "I would not describe it as some open-ended military campaign."
Earlier on February 4, U.S. forces said they hit an additional Huthi target in Yemen, destroying what they said was an “anti-ship cruise missile” site that had threatened Red Sea shipping traffic.
The statement by U.S. Central Command, released early on February 4, came hours after the United States and Britain stuck more than three dozen targets in Yemen that officials identified as sites operated by the Iran-backed Huthi rebel group.
The U.S. statement did not identify where the “anti-ship cruise missile” site was located, and said only that U.S. forces acted in “self-defense.”
A spokesman for Huthi fighters, who have fired dozens missiles at commercial ship traffic passing through the Red Sea, earlier said the attacks "will not deter us" and vowed a response.
In the strikes on February 3, U.S. officials said 36 targets in 13 different locations in Yemen had been hit by U.S. F/A-18 jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and by Tomahawk missiles fired by warships in the Red Sea.
They were the latest in a widening campaign by U.S. forces and its allies hitting locations not only Yemen, but also, on February 2, in Syria and Iraq. All the targets are where Iranian-linked proxy groups are believed to be operating, U.S. officials say.
Iran, whose Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have extensive ties to militias throughout the Middle East, accused the United States of undermining regional stability.
SEE ALSO: Iran Says It's 'Not Looking For War,' But Is Ready For OneThe “attack on Syria and Iraq is an adventurous action and another strategic mistake by the U.S. government, which will have no result other than intensifying tension and instability in the region," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Naser Kanani said.
Iraqi officials have also reacted angrily.
The U.S. response followed an incident on January 28 in Jordan, when a drone hit a U.S. base, killing three American service members. Washington blamed Tehran and its allies operating in Syria and Iraq.
The wider Middle East continues to grapple with the Israeli military operation in Gaza that is aimed at rooting out the U.S. and EU-designated terror group Hamas. Gaza has been devastated by the Israeli onslaught, with outside observers saying tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed.
Officials in the Middle East, and also some in Washington, D.C., have warned that the expanding U.S. strikes risk sparking a broader war in the region.