US launches 'heavy' strikes on Iran after attempted attack on American troops

The US military says it launched "heavy" strikes against Iran on Wednesday in retaliation for attempted Iranian ballistic missile attacks on American forces.

Centcom said it hit "dozens" of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in response to Tuesday's firing by Iran on US bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The latest hostilities came a day after the conflict expanded, with the first publicly announced joint US-Saudi strikes targeting Iranian proxies in Iraq.

When the US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran in February, President Donald Trump said the war would last only a few weeks, but it has gone on for five months with no end in sight.

On Wednesday, Axios reported, citing an unnamed US official, that Trump had met with Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who had conveyed that Saudi Arabia wants to de-escalate tensions. The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.

The conflict has reignited after several days of relative calm.

For days, both sides halted strikes as talks apparently restarted in hopes of some type of diplomatic solution. Trump called them "very friendly negotiations", though Tehran denied any discussions were happening.

The strikes on Wednesday started at 20:00 ET (01:00 BST on Thursday) and lasted about an hour, with Centcom calling them a "powerful response to yesterday's attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East". All of Iran's missiles were intercepted, Centcom said.

The attack by the US targeted "military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities," Centcom wrote once the strikes were complete.

Hours before the announced strikes, Trump vowed to retaliate against Iran for their attempted attack on US troops a day earlier.

The US president told reporters at the White House: "We're going to be hitting them very hard because it's our turn to hit them.

"They know it's coming. They asked us not to do it."

The IRGC said it had targeted a US air base and a command centre in Jordan "in response to the acts of aggression of the American child-killing army".

It also said naval forces had struck three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz after they "ignored warnings" and sailed along what it described as an "unsafe and illegal route" through the vital Gulf waterway.

Last Friday, Trump suspended an intensive bombing campaign that had lasted for 13 consecutive nights. The US said it had targeted Iranian weapons and military sites. Scores of people were reported to have died.

On Tuesday, Centcom said the joint US-Saudi strikes hit "multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours".

Iraq's paramilitary Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), which is dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, said at least 20 of its members had been killed in US-Saudi strikes on its bases.

The Iraqi presidency said it denounced the bombing of the PMF bases, calling it "an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty".

But Trump told Fox News the strikes had been "co-ordinated with the Iraqi government".

Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the leading Sunni Muslim power, and Iran, the largest Shia Muslim country, have been locked in a struggle for regional dominance for decades.