The US military says it has completed a “heavy wave” of strikes against Iran in retaliation for an attempted ballistic missile attack on American forces on Tuesday.

US Central Command (Centcom) said it struck “dozens” of targets linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after Iran fired at US bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Centcom said all of Iran’s missiles were intercepted and that the operation began at 20:00 ET on Wednesday (01:00 BST on Thursday) and lasted about an hour.

Targets Hit By The US

Centcom said the strikes targeted military command centres, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defence sites, and maritime capabilities. The command said the attacks were a “powerful response” to what it described as attempted Iranian actions against US forces based in the region.

Iranian state media reported casualties from the latest attacks. Iran’s Irib said three people, including a two-year-old child, were killed on Qeshm island, while other locations were hit across the south and west of Iran. Another Iranian outlet, Fars, said the deaths occurred after a US strike hit a residential home in the Chah Tangu neighbourhood of Qeshm.

Jordan Reports Missile Interceptions

Jordan’s armed forces said air defence systems successfully shot down five Iranian missiles targeting the kingdom on Thursday. On Tuesday, the IRGC said it had targeted a US air base and a command centre in Jordan, describing the action as retaliation for what it called aggression by the “American child-killing army”.

The IRGC also said its naval units attacked three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz after they “ignored warnings” and moved, in its description, along an “unsafe and illegal route” through the Gulf waterway.

Wider Conflict As Talks Resume Then Halt

The renewed exchange comes after a week in which the conflict appeared to widen. The first publicly announced joint US-Saudi strikes targeting Iranian proxies in Iraq were carried out earlier in the week.

The BBC has reported that Axios cited an unnamed US official on Wednesday as saying President Donald Trump had met Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who conveyed that Saudi Arabia wants to de-escalate tensions. The BBC said it contacted the White House for comment.

Hostilities had eased for several days as both sides paused strikes amid talks, according to reports. Trump described the discussions as “very friendly negotiations”, while Tehran denied any talks were under way. After the missile attack on a US base in Jordan on Tuesday, Trump said he would retaliate, telling reporters: “We’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them.”

US-Saudi Strikes In Iraq

Last Friday, Trump suspended an intensive US bombing campaign that had run for 13 consecutive nights, with the US saying it targeted Iranian weapons and military sites and that scores of people had died. On Tuesday, Centcom said joint US-Saudi strikes hit multiple logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in response to more than 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the previous 72 hours.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a coalition dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, said at least 20 of its members were killed in US-Saudi strikes on its bases. The Iraqi presidency said it condemned the attacks as unacceptable and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. Trump told Fox News the strikes were coordinated with the Iraqi government.

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30 July 2026

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Sounds like the US is playing whack a mole.