U.S. military launches ‘powerful’ strikes on Iran in retaliation for attack on bases in Jordan

Damage at the site of a strike in Bartalla, northern Iraq, on July 29, 2026. The U.S.-Saudi strikes on Iraq killed at least 20 members of a former paramilitary alliance that includes pro-Iran groups, the alliance said. Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images

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The United States military launched “powerful” strikes on Iran on Thursday, in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks targeting U.S. bases in Jordan as the Middle East war reignited and again drew in the Islamic republic’s proxies.

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The first strikes after a nearly week-long lull in fighting dashed hopes of a return to negotiations.

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“The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on U.S. forces based in the Middle East”, U.S. Central Command said.

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Saudi Arabia and the United States also announced strikes Wednesday on bases in Iraq, while U.S. ally Israel accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of a truce violation.

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For two days, the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia has reported drone attacks targeting crude facilities that it blamed on Iraqi armed groups allied with Tehran.

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Iran meanwhile launched missiles at U.S. ally Jordan, with Iranian state media later reporting an American attack near the Islamic republic’s border with Iraq.

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Ahead of the latest strikes, U.S. President Trump told Fox News: “We’ll be hitting them hard…We are going to beat the ‘effing s’ out of them.”

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Iran’s state television, meanwhile, reported a U.S. strike in the Piranshahr border area, after the Fars news agency reported a missile hit an uninhabited area, causing no casualties.

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Earlier, Jordan’s army said it had intercepted five Iranian missiles, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards saying they had targeted U.S. bases there.

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“As long as the threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue…the resistance will continue,” they added.

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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”.

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Israel fought alongside the U.S. 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.

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U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on the oil price jump Wednesday, while the yield on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds hit their highest levels since 2007.

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In Iraq, a joint U.S.-Saudi air operation followed attacks by what Riyadh called “terrorist militias loyal to Iran” on its oil facilities.

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The U.S. military said logistics and weapons sites belonging to an Iran-aligned group were targeted in the strikes.

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Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi alliance said the attacks killed at least 20 of its members.

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It denounced a “dangerous escalation” against an “official security institution”.

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Two Hashed officials said five Iranian advisors were among those killed, and AFP correspondents saw coffins draped with Iranian flags.