The U.S. military will strike Iran hard in retaliation for ballistic missile attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East a day earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday.

"We'll be hitting them hard," Trump said in an interview with Fox News. "They're going to get a beating."

Trump said, however, that the White House would allow Iranian officials to continue negotiations.

The president also said he was considering additional warnings to Iranian-backed groups in the region.

U.S. and Saudi fighter jets struck several logistics and weapons sites in eastern Iraq in response to more than 30 drone attacks directed by Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps over the previous 72 hours, U.S. Central Command said on X Tuesday night.

The Iraqi presidency on Wednesday strongly condemned the U.S.-Saudi strikes targeting its paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces, calling them an "unacceptable aggression" and a "flagrant violation of Iraq's sovereignty."