WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Friday’s airstrikes on Iran-backed targets in Iraq and Syria were more than just “retaliation” for the killing of three U.S. service members, Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark told NewsNation’s “Morning in America.”

“You can label it as retaliation, but it’s not actually retaliation,” said Clark. “Retaliation is a tit-for-tat, you hit me, I’ll hit you all. And it goes on and on. The strikes should have been heavy enough to dissuade the militia groups and Iran from continuing their policy of these pinpoint strikes on American installations in the region.”

The massive barrage of strikes hit more than 85 targets at seven locations, including command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites and other facilities that were connected to the militias or the IRGC’s Quds Force, the Guard’s expeditionary unit that handles Tehran’s relationship with and arming of regional militias.

Clark told NewsNation that whether further U.S. strikes follow is largely up to the Iranian-backed militias.

“Are they going to come back and escalate? You can expect a lot of rhetoric but will they actually follow through? Because the United States is, in a way, putting its foot down at this point.”

President Joe Biden on Friday attended a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base Friday to honor the three U.S. service members who were killed in the assault.

The service members killed Sunday were all from Georgia and served in the Army Reserves: Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross and Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted to sergeant rank.