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It was the primary navy evaluation of the strikes carried out in response to a drone assault in Jordan by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq on Jan. 28 that killed three American troopers and injured no less than 40 extra service members.

“This is the start of our response, and there will be additional actions taken,” General Ryder instructed reporters with out elaborating. “We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else, but attacks on American forces will not be tolerated.”

But the evaluation additionally reveals the bounds of the American marketing campaign thus far. In specific, U.S. officers acknowledge that the militias focused nonetheless retain the vast majority of their functionality to hold out future assaults.

There had been no preliminary indications that Iranian advisers had been killed within the strikes on Friday, navy officers stated, however General Ryder stated there most likely had been casualties. Syria and Iraq have stated that no less than 39 individuals — 23 in Syria and 16 in Iraq — had been killed within the Friday strikes, a toll that the Iraqi authorities stated included civilians.

The assaults within the two nations, in addition to U.S.-led strikes on Saturday in opposition to 36 Houthi targets in northern Yemen, have edged the area nearer to a broader battle even because the administration insists it doesn’t need struggle with Iran. Instead, U.S. officers say they’re centered on whittling away the militias’ formidable arsenals and deterring extra assaults in opposition to U.S. troops, in addition to service provider ships within the Red Sea.

The militias appear undeterred, nonetheless. Hours after the strikes on Friday, an Iran-backed militia fired two rockets at a U.S. navy outpost in northeastern Syria the place troops are serving to stamp out the remnants of the Islamic State. On Sunday, an explosives-laden drone was fired at one other U.S. outpost in northeastern Syria. The rockets triggered no harm or American accidents, the Pentagon stated. On Sunday, the navy’s Central Command stated U.S. forces destroyed 5 Houthi land-based and anti-ship cruise missiles that posed an imminent risk.

On Monday, U.S. forces carried out a strike in opposition to two explosives-laden naval drones that Central Command stated posed an imminent risk to ships within the area.

Overall, Iran-backed militias have carried out no less than 166 drone, rocket and missile assaults in opposition to U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan for the reason that Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas that killed 1,200 individuals in Israel. The Houthis have performed no less than three dozen assaults in opposition to ships within the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The militia says its assaults are in solidarity with Palestinians within the struggle between Israel and Hamas.

National safety specialists and officers say privately that to really degrade the aptitude of the Shiite militias, the United States must perform a yearslong marketing campaign much like the six-year effort to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Even then, the officers say, the militias, with Iran’s backing, might most likely survive longer than the Islamic State, which was pressured by the United States and Iran, and even Russia.

American officers over the weekend and on Monday warned that extra strikes had been in retailer in what’s rising as an open-ended marketing campaign not simply in Yemen — the place the United States and Britain first launched main retaliatory strikes on Jan. 11 — however now additionally in Syria and Iraq to avenge the deaths of the three Army reservists, who had been killed at a distant provide base.

“The president was clear when he ordered them and when he conducted them that that was the beginning of our response and there will be more steps to come,” Jake Sullivan, the nationwide safety adviser, stated on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, talking in regards to the strikes in Iraq and Syria.

Mr. Sullivan stated he didn’t need to “telegraph our punches” by revealing particulars of future motion. But he stated that the purpose was to punish these focusing on Americans with out setting off a direct confrontation with Iran.

Analysts say there are already indicators that the newest strikes are having an impression in Tehran, the place a extensively unpopular authorities already battling a weak economic system, outbursts of mass protest and terrorism has little urge for food for an all-out struggle with the United States.

But regional specialists say reining in Iran’s proxies, which depend on Tehran for weapons, intelligence and financing, might show harder.

“Around 2020, Iran began to give blanket clearance to these groups to attack United States positions in Iraq and Syria,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a retired head of U.S. Central Command, stated on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “They have the opportunity to generate these attacks without directly going back to Iran.”

A significant query for Mr. Biden and his nationwide safety aides is what extra targets in Iraq and Syria might be struck.

On Friday, American B-1B bombers and different warplanes hit targets at 4 websites in Syria and three websites in Iraq in a 30-minute assault, U.S. officers stated. John F. Kirby, a National Security Council spokesman, stated the targets at every website had been picked as a result of they had been linked to particular assaults in opposition to U.S. troops within the area, and to keep away from civilian casualties.

By avoiding targets in Iran, the White House and Central Command are attempting to ship a message of deterrence whereas controlling escalation, U.S. officers stated. It is evident from statements from the White House and from Tehran that neither aspect needs a wider struggle. But, because the strike in Jordan confirmed, with any navy motion comes the possibility of miscalculation.

Helene Cooper contributed reporting.