US launches ‘heavy’ strikes on Iran after attempted attack on American troops
The US military said it had completed a “heavy wave” of strikes against Iran in retaliation for an attempted ballistic missile attack on American forces on Tuesday.
Centcom said it hit “dozens” of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in response to Iran firing on US bases in Jordan and ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state media reported that three people, including a two-year-old child, were killed on the island of Qeshm in the latest attacks, while other places in the south and west of the country were also hit.
The latest hostilities coincided with a week of widening conflict, with the first joint US-Saudi strikes targeting Iran’s proxies in Iraq.
When the United States and Israel launched a military attack on Iran in February, President Donald Trump said the war would last only a few weeks but had been going on for five months with no end in sight.
On Wednesday, news outlet Axios quoted an unnamed US official as saying Trump had met with Saudi defense minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who conveyed that Saudi Arabia wanted to de-escalate tensions. The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian government said that a fire at a port on Wednesday was caused by a drone attack. Egypt, a US ally, had never been directly attacked before during the war.
The US-Iran conflict has flared up again after several days of relative calm.
For days, both sides stopped attacks Talks have resumed, apparently in the hope of some kind of diplomatic solution. Although Trump described these as “very friendly negotiations,” Tehran denied any discussions took place.
But following Iran’s missile attack on a US base in Jordan on Tuesday, Trump vowed to retaliate, telling reporters at the White House: “We’re going to hit them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming. They asked us not to do it.”
US Central Command released this image of a plane taking off during an offensive operation [US Central Command]
The latest wave of US attacks began at 20:00 ET on Wednesday (01:00 BST on Thursday) and lasted about an hour; Centcom called them “a strong response to yesterday’s attempted attacks by Iran against US forces in the Middle East.” Centcom said all of Iran’s missiles were captured.
After the strikes were completed, Centcom wrote that the U.S. strike targeted “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities.”
Iranian state media agency Irib reported that the islands of Qeshm and Abadan, both centers of the oil industry, were among the affected areas.
“A US attack on a residential house in the Chah Tangu neighborhood of Qeshm killed three members of a family: father, mother and their 2-year-old child,” Fars said, quoting Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s armed forces said its air defense systems successfully shot down five Iranian missiles targeting the Kingdom’s territory on Thursday.
IRGC on Tuesday It said it targeted a US air base and a command center in Jordan “in response to the aggressive actions of the American child-killing military.”
He also said naval forces shot down three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz after they “ignored warnings” and followed what he described as an “unsafe and illegal route” through the vital Gulf waterway.
Last Friday, Trump suspended his intense bombing campaign, which lasted 13 consecutive nights. The US said it targeted Iran’s weapons and military facilities. It was stated that many people lost their lives.
On Tuesday, Centcom said joint US-Saudi strikes “hit multiple terrorist logistics and weapons facilities in eastern Iraq in a robust response to more than 30 IRGC-directed drone strikes over the past 72 hours.”
Iraq’s paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias, said at least 20 of its members were killed in attacks on US-Saudi bases.
The Iraqi presidency stated that it condemned the bombing of PMF bases, calling it “an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.”
But Trump told Fox News that the attacks were carried out “in coordination with the Iraqi government.”
Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the leading power of Sunni Muslims, and Iran, the largest country of Shiite Muslims, have been locked in a struggle for regional dominance for decades.
