Mike Pence
Mike PenceReuters

US Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday the United States has received intelligence that Iran has asked its allied militias not to attack US targets.

"We're receiving some encouraging intelligence that Iran is sending messages to those very same militias not to move against American targets or civilians, and we hope that that message continues to echo," Pence said in an interview with CBS News.

Pence also said he believes Americans are "safer today" after President Donald Trump ordered the air strike that killed Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani last week.

"I believe we are safer today than before President Trump ordered our military to take out Qassem Soleimani," he said, adding, "the challenge we face now is that Qassem Soleimani was in fact the primary leader of those Iranian sponsored militias across northern Iran and their influence in Syria as well, but we're sending a very clear message as we did with those five airstrikes to militia bases... that we will not tolerate violence," Pence said.

The interview with Pence came a day after Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against US military and coalition forces in Iraq, in an attack said to be retaliation for the Soleimani’s death.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump delivered an address to the nation following the Iranian missile attacks.

“All of our soldiers are safe,” he said, noting that there were no American casualties in the attacks.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, said on Wednesday that Iran’s missile attack in Iraq had been intended to kill US personnel as well as cause major damage at al-Asad airbase.

Milley added that it was still too early to tell if Iran would carry out additional attacks.