The US president said he held Iran responsible for the fatal attack that killed three Americans "in the sense that they supplied weapons to the people who carried it out".
"I don't think we need a bigger war in the Middle East. That's not what I'm looking for," Biden told reporters at the White House as he prepared to leave for two campaign events in Florida.
Sunday's drone strike killed three American soldiers and wounded at least 34 others at Tower 22, a remote military installation in Jordan near the borders with Syria and Iraq. An Iranian-backed militia group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility.
The organization has been carrying out drone and missile attacks against US forces in the region for months amid Israel's ongoing war against the besieged Gaza Strip. Sunday's death is the first resulting from these attacks. Most others were intercepted or resulted in minor injuries among American troops.
The Pentagon identified the dead as Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, Sergeant Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Sergeant Breona Alexandria Moffett. They all died when a suicide drone struck their residential area.
The Biden administration has not yet determined which specific group within the broader organization was responsible for Sunday's attack, but is continuing to investigate.
In response to a reporter's question, Biden said he believed Iran was responsible for the fatal drone attack "in the sense that they supplied weapons to the people who did it."
The president vowed to fight back and said he had decided on January 30 how he would respond. He did not offer specifics./BGNES