UNITED STATES (REUTERS) - US Vice President Mike Pence marked the anniversary of a 1983 truck bomb attack at the Marine compound in Beirut that killed 241 US service members describing it as the beginning of the war on terror.

At the Marine Barracks in Washington, DC, Pence also said that President Donald Trump "has put Iran on notice", after the president broke ranks with other major powers earlier this month by disavowing Iran's compliance with a 2015 multinational nuclear deal.

"We grieve the loss of four Americans heroes, who fell in Niger earlier this month," Pence added.

The widow of a US Army sergeant killed in Niger this month said on Monday that Trump had "made me cry even worse" in a condolence telephone call when he said her husband "knew what he signed up for."

Pence was speaking at the 34th anniversary of the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon Monday (Oct 23). 241 service members, most of them Marines were killed when a truck filled with explosives drove into barracks early on the morning of October 23, 1983. The attack was perpetrated by Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist organisation backed by the Iranian government.

Pence called the bombing the beginning of the global war on terror and claimed that President Trump will do everything in his power to end terrorism, including pull out of the Iranian Nuclear Deal.

Pence also brought up the death of American soldiers in Niger earlier this month. He did not address why American soldiers were in the region or the controversy surrounding President Trump's conversation with the family of Sergeant La David Johnson, one of the fallen soldiers.