One hour. Dozens of targets. And, by Centcom’s count, every Iranian missile intercepted. That is how the US military described its latest “heavy wave” of strikes on Iran, which began at 20:00 ET on Wednesday.
The bottom line is retaliation. Centcom said the strikes answered Tuesday’s attempted ballistic missile attacks, when Iran fired on US bases in Jordan and on ships near the Strait of Hormuz. It put the targets at “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities”, all linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Centcom called the operation a “powerful response”.
Casualties and damage
Iranian state media gave a different picture of the night. Irib reported hits on Qeshm and Abadan, two islands tied to the oil industry. Fars, citing the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, said a strike on a house in the Chah Tangu neighbourhood of Qeshm killed a father, a mother and their 2-year-old child. Other sites in the south and west of the country were also hit, state media said.
A man in his 30s who lives in the south of the island told BBC Persian he was leaving for Tehran. “Things are becoming more dangerous here,” he said. The internet had been a mess and the power kept cutting out. “There have been loud bangs since 03:40 this morning. We are helpless.”
On Thursday, Jordan’s armed forces said air defences shot down five Iranian missiles aimed at the kingdom.
What set it off
For several days both sides had held fire. Trump described the period as “very friendly negotiations”; Tehran denied any talks were taking place. Then came Tuesday. The IRGC said it had hit a US air base and a command centre in Jordan, citing what it called “acts of aggression of the American child-killing army”. It also said its naval forces struck three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz that had “ignored warnings” and used what it described as an “unsafe and illegal route”.
Trump promised an answer at the White House. “We’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them,” he told reporters. “They know it’s coming. They asked us not to do it.”
A widening front
The week had already seen the conflict spread. On Tuesday Centcom announced the first publicly declared joint US-Saudi strikes, on what it called terrorist logistics and weapons sites in eastern Iraq, a response to more than 30 IRGC-directed drone attacks in 72 hours. Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, said at least 20 of its members died. The Iraqi presidency called the bombing “an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”. Trump told Fox News the strikes had been coordinated with the Iraqi government.
Egypt, a US ally, said a fire at one of its ports on Wednesday was caused by a drone attack. It had not been directly hit before in this war.
Axios, citing an unnamed US official, reported that Trump met Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman on Wednesday and that the prince said Riyadh wants tensions lowered. The BBC said it had asked the White House for comment.
The fighting has run on and off since a ceasefire in April collapsed in June. Last Friday Trump suspended a bombing campaign that had lasted 13 consecutive nights. The US has also blockaded Iranian ports.
