The US launches Iran strikes after an attempted attack on American troops in the Middle East, the military said Wednesday, marking a sharp new turn in a conflict that has now stretched for months. US Central Command said on X that the operation was “a powerful response” to Tuesday’s fire on US bases in Jordan and on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest action came after the conflict widened a day earlier, when the US and Saudi Arabia carried out their first publicly announced joint strikes, aimed at Iranian proxy groups in Iraq. Centcom said those attacks hit “multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq” in response to more than 30 IRGC-directed drone attacks over the previous 72 hours. Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, a paramilitary bloc dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, said at least 20 of its members were killed. Iraq’s presidency condemned the strikes as a violation of sovereignty.
Hours before the new US strikes were announced, President Donald Trump said he would retaliate after Iran’s attempt to hit US troops. Speaking at the White House, he said the United States would strike back hard because it was “our turn to hit them.” On Wednesday, Axios reported, citing an unnamed US official, that Trump had met with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who said Saudi Arabia wanted tensions to ease. The White House did not immediately comment, and the BBC said it had contacted the White House.
Tehran and Washington have traded competing claims over the fighting. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted a US air base and a command center in Jordan in response to what it called American aggression. It also said its naval forces struck three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz after the vessels ignored warnings and sailed a route it described as unsafe and illegal. The US has said it targeted Iranian weapons and military sites in an intensive bombing campaign that Trump suspended last Friday after 13 straight nights of strikes. Scores of people were reported to have died.
