The US military says it launched “severe” strikes against Iran on Wednesday in retaliation for Iranian missile attacks on the US military.
Centcom said it had hit “several” targets of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a result of Iran’s shelling on Tuesday of American bases in Jordan and ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest clashes came a day after the escalation of the conflict, with the first joint US-Saudi strikes targeting Iranian diplomats in Iraq.
When the US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran in February, President Donald Trump said the war would only last a few weeks, but it has gone on for five months without notice.
On Wednesday, Axios reported, citing an unnamed US official, that Trump met with Saudi defense minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who expressed Saudi Arabia’s desire to ease tensions. The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.
The conflict has escalated again after several days of calm.
For days, both sides called off strikes as talks apparently resumed in hopes of some sort of diplomatic solution. Trump called them “very friendly talks”, although Tehran denied that any talks had taken place.
Wednesday’s strikes began at 20:00 ET (01:00 BST Thursday) and lasted about an hour, with Centcom calling them “a strong response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attack on US forces based in the Middle East”. All of Iran’s missiles have been intercepted, Centcom said.
The US strikes targeted “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coast guard and defense facilities, and maritime forces,” Centcom wrote when the strikes ended.
Hours before the strikes were announced, Trump vowed to retaliate against Iran for its attempted attack on American forces the previous day.
The American president told reporters at the White House that: “We will hit them hard because it is our turn to hit them.”
“They knew it was coming. They asked us not to do it.”
IRGC data it said it was targeting the US Air Force Base and the Command Center in Jordan “to respond to the atrocities of the US military that kill children”.
It also said the navy rammed three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz after they “disregarded warnings” and took what it described as an “unsafe and illegal route” through a key Gulf road.
Last Friday, Trump called off a 13-night bombing campaign. The US said it targeted Iran’s weapons and military facilities. Dozens of people have been reported dead.
On Tuesday, Centcom said the US-Saudi joint airstrikes hit “several terrorist and weapons sites in eastern Iraq in response to 30 airstrikes directed by the IRGC in the last 72 hours”.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which is dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, said at least 20 of its members were killed in US-Saudi strikes on its bases.
The Iraqi Presidency said it condemned the bombing of PMF bases, calling it an “unacceptable attack and a clear violation of Iraqi sovereignty”.
But Trump told Fox News that the strikes were “coordinated with the Iraqi government”.
Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the leading Sunni Muslim power, and Iran, the largest Shia Muslim country, have been locked in a struggle for dominance in the region for decades.
