Having blamed "radical Iran-backed militant groups" for the deaths, the retaliation could include strikes on such militias anywhere in the Middle East and targets within Iran itself.

Asked by reporters if he blamed Iran for the deaths of the US soldiers, Biden declared that he held Tehran responsible "in the sense that they're supplying the weapons to the people who did it." Pressed to say if Iran was directly responsible, he refused to respond, simply declaring "we'll have that discussion." Iran has denied any responsibility for the attack.

Well aware that the US-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza has transformed the Middle East into a powder keg, Biden played down the potential for regional conflict.

"I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That's not what I'm looking for," he said.

Yet that is exactly what the Biden administration is doing, not only through its political, economic and military support for Israel but its expanding war against Houthi militia in Yemen and strikes in Iraq and Syria. US imperialism is rapidly and recklessly plunging the Middle East into a region-wide war that together with the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine threatens to engulf the world.

While Biden gave no indication of the nature of US retaliation, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One that the US intended to strike the militia groups and degrade their capacity to attack US troops while sending a "strong signal to their backers" in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ominously, he declared that Biden's order would be a "tiered approach" encompassing "potentially multiple actions."