The US military completed a “heavy wave of strikes” against Iran on Thursday in retaliation against Tehran targeting American bases in Jordan, as fighting intensified in the Middle East war after a nearly week-long pause.
The reignited hostilities have drawn in the Islamic republic’s proxies and appear to have dashed hopes of a quick return to negotiations between the foes.
US President Donald Trump had vowed to hit Iran “hard” after Tehran launched missiles at Jordan, its first regional strike in days.
American forces “successfully completed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran” and struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance sites, and maritime capabilities US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported hits on several cities in the southwestern Khuzestan province, as well as on Qeshm island in the Gulf. Areas around the cities of Abadan, Shadegan, Arvandkenar, and Ahvaz all in Khuzestan were struck, the agency said, citing provincial authorities.
In a sign of the war’s spread, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced strikes Wednesday on militant bases in Iraq, while US ally Israel accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of a truce violation.
The world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has reported two days of drone attacks targeting crude facilities that it blames on Iraqi armed groups allied with Tehran
Jordan’s army said it had intercepted five Iranian missiles after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had targeted US bases there.
“As long as the threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue… the resistance will continue.”
On another front, Israel accused Hezbollah of deploying a drone overnight against an Israeli vehicle inside Lebanon, in what the military called “a blatant violation of the ceasefire.”
Israel fought alongside the United States in the first weeks of the war against Iran while battling Hezbollah in Lebanon, but it has yet to join the latest round of strikes against the Islamic republic.
In Iraq, the joint US-Saudi air operation followed attacks by what Riyadh called “terrorist militias loyal to Iran” on its oil facilities.
The US military said logistics and weapons sites belonging to an Iran-aligned group were targeted in the strikes.
Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi alliance said the attacks killed at least 20 of its members, denouncing a “dangerous escalation” against an “official security institution”.
Two Hashed officials said five Iranian advisors were among those killed, and coffins draped with Iranian flags were seen at the site.
The Hashed al-Shaabi alliance, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), was created in 2014 to fight jihadists before its integration into the military. It includes brigades belonging to Iran-backed groups reputed for acting unilaterally.
