The Biden administration is preparing a wave of strikes and cyber attacks that could last ‘weeks’ in response to the Iranian-backed drone attack that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan.

U.S. officials have given public and private signals that the operation it is planning will be multi-faceted.

Officials told NBC News it will include Iranian targets outside Iran and would consist of both strikes and cyber operations.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said it will be ‘multileveled’ and the White House has said it would be ‘tiered’. 

Potential targets reportedly include Iranian commercial interests and proxy groups with forces in Iraq and Syria.

President Biden is believed not to be planning attacks inside the territory of Iran, despite the urgings of some Republicans in Congress.

Biden told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he has decided on a response, but his administration has yet to reveal any plans, saying the U.S. will respond at a time and place of its choosing.

‘I do hold them responsible in the sense they are supplying the weapons to the people who did it,’ Biden said at the White House when asked if he holds Iran responsible.

When asked if he held Tehran directly responsible, he said: ‘We will have those discussions.’

But he also cautioned: ‘I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East, that’s not what I’m looking for.’

On Tuesday night, Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani told reporters that giving a ‘strong response to enemies’ who target the country is ‘the fundamental policy of Iran,’ according to a report in the state-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency.

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