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The US military announced early on Thursday it had completed “a heavy wave of strikes against Iran” conducted in response to earlier Iranian attacks on a US base in Jordan.
The latest barrage came after the US partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Iran-backed militias in neighbouring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers.
The US Central Command said in a post on social media that over a two hour period, the US struck “dozens” of targets belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, including military command centres as well as missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defence sites.
The new strikes came hours after US President Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran “very hard” after it targeted a base in Jordan that hosts US troops.
Iranian state media said two people were injured in attacks on the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz and that explosions were also reported in Khuzestan province, west of the country, neighbouring Iraq and Kuwait.
Elsewhere, drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at the Egyptian port of Damietta, according to UK maritime security firm Ambrey.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes on a US-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker at the port, though no injuries were reported.
The flare-ups on multiple fronts after several days of relative calm raised the risk of a return to all-out war. It also underscored the difficulty of winding down a five-month conflict that has jolted the world economy and is unpopular domestically among Americans.
The fighting was also likely to raise concerns that Washington is further drawing down already diminished stockpiles of sophisticated munitions needed to defend its bases and allies.
Egypt, a close US ally and regional mediator, is one of the only countries in the Middle East to have been spared direct military action during the war. A strike by Iran or its allies, if confirmed, would mark a significant widening of the conflict, which has already spilled over to several states.
Asked during an Oval Office event if Iran was responsible for the strikes on the natural gas vessels, Trump responded: “It’s a little more of the same.”
“In the meantime, we’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them,” he added.
Saudi Arabia had accused the Iraqi militias of firing drones against its oil facilities over the past two days.
An umbrella group of Iraqi militias initially denied the allegations, while another Iran-backed group — the Houthi rebels in Yemen — said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of a separate but related conflict.
Before the latest eruption, mediators had expressed optimism about bringing the US and Iran back to the negotiating table.
An interim agreement, signed in June, collapsed in recent weeks over renewed fighting in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies that Iranian attacks have again effectively closed.
A regional official said mediators are “still trying with both sides” to restore calm and get the ceasefire back on track, but gave no details on whether progress was being made in the closed-door diplomatic attempts.
Additional sources • AP