The US president promised harsh retaliation for the attempted “surprise” missile attack on American forces
The US has launched a “powerful” bombing raid against Iran after President Donald Trump warned that it was “our turn to hit them,” following Tehran’s ballistic missile attack on American forces in Jordan the previous night.
US Central Command said the new strikes began at 8pm Eastern Time on Wednesday.
“The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East,” CENTCOM announced.
The command did not immediately identify the targets, disclose how many aircraft or missiles were involved, or say how long the operation was expected to continue.
Trump had warned earlier on Wednesday that Iran was about to face a harsh response, reportedly telling Fox News: “We’re going to beat the f***ing s**t out of them.”
Speaking later at the White House, Trump said Iran had fired five missiles at American forces and credited US Patriot air-defense systems with intercepting all of them. “We’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them,” he added.
CENTCOM described Tuesday’s missile launch as an attempted “surprise attack,” claiming that all the incoming projectiles had been intercepted. The command did not initially mention Jordan, saying only that the missiles had targeted US forces “based in the Middle East.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later claimed responsibility for the attack. The IRGC said it was responding to “aggressive actions” by the US military and warned that its operations would continue as long as Washington persisted with what it called “illegal and malicious actions” against Iranian interests.
The renewed US bombing ended a brief pause that began after Trump suspended a 13-night campaign of strikes last Friday to allow negotiations with Tehran to proceed. He had warned, however, that military action would resume if diplomacy failed.
