The United States has carried out fresh strikes on Iran, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), further intensifying a five-month-old war that was already expanding beyond its main fronts to embroil additional countries in the region.
The attack began at 3:30am in Iran on Thursday and lasted for two hours, according to statements from CENTCOM posted on X.
“The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East,” the command said, later adding that it had struck dozens of “military command centres, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defence sites, and maritime capabilities” belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“More than 50,000 US service members are currently deployed to the Middle East and remain highly vigilant, focused, lethal, and ready,”
the command said.
US President Donald Trump had earlier promised to hit Iran “very hard”, telling reporters in the Oval Office it was “our turn” after a series of escalating exchanges between Washington and Tehran, following a two-day pause in hostilities earlier this week.
He also reportedly told conservative US outlet Fox News he planned to “beat the f***ing s***” out of Iran, in a phone interview which was not broadcast.
The outburst was prompted by news on Wednesday that Iran had fired missiles at three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as launching a surprise attack aimed at American troops in Jordan on Tuesday.
Smoke rises from a tanker after a suspected drone strike on an Egyptian port. (Supplied via Reuters)
While CENTCOM said all of Iran’s missiles were intercepted in Tuesday’s attack, Jordan’s US bases have recently become primary Iranian targets, with three US service members dying so far this month, the worst US losses since March.
On Wednesday, US and Saudi forces launched strikes against Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets, while two ships, including a US-owned gas storage tanker, caught fire after an explosion at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta.
Maritime security firm Ambrey said the explosion appeared to be the result of a drone attack, though it could not identify the source of the attack.
The strikes in Iraq and Egypt are now threatening to draw more Middle Eastern countries into the conflict, after the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen last week declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.
A temporary ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran in June collapsed amid renewed fighting over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says it now controls.
‘Death to America’ shouted in Iraq
The joint US–Saudi attacks in Iraq marked the first time Riyadh has publicly joined strikes alongside Washington.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, powerful Iran-backed paramilitary groups incorporated into the Iraqi ‌security forces, said at least 20 members were killed and 32 wounded in the US–Saudi strikes, which targeted several bases across Iraq.
Iraqi men shouted “Death to America!” as they carried the bodies of dead fighters in coffins and body bags.
Mourners carry coffins draped in the Iranian and Iraqi flags through Mosul following US and Saudi strikes. (AP Photo: Hadi Mizban)
After the joint attacks, Saudi Arabia’s defence minister met with US Vice-President JD Vance to urge the Trump administration not to escalate the conflict further by attacking Yemen’s Houthis or by carrying out additional ‌strikes in Iraq, two sources told the Reuters news agency.
One of ‌the sources added that such escalation would open the door to “major unknown risks”. The White House and the Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
US officials have privately cautioned that resuming major combat operations against Iran would ‌carry significant risk, given America’s dwindling stocks of munitions.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, estimated this week that the US military has fewer than 1,000 Patriot interceptor missiles and fewer than 250 THAAD interceptors, two key air defence systems.
Though Iran denies its forces have directed strikes from Iraqi territory, Iranian newspaper Hamshahri reported that four Iranian Revolutionary Guards advisers had ‌been killed in the strikes on Iraq.
Four IRGC advisers were reportedly killed in US and Saudi strikes on Mosul. (AP Photo: Farid Abdulwahed)
Iraq’s Shia-led government is one of the few in the world to balance close military and diplomatic ties with both Tehran and Washington, but those divided loyalties are a constant source of tension and frequent domestic unrest.
The office of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who took power just two months ago, urged the parties involved to avoid escalation and said he wanted to keep the country out of regional conflicts.
The Iraqi presidency denounced the strikes on the paramilitaries as “an unacceptable attack and a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”, while also calling for a halt to attacks by armed â groups against Iraq’s neighbours.
Reuters/ABC
