Middle East crisis live: US launches fresh strikes on Iran after days-long pause in attacks
Key events16m agoOpening summaryOpening summaryWelcome to our live coverage of the continuing crisis in the Middle East. The UShas said it is conducting airstrikes in Iran, after a lull of several days in. . .
Key events16m agoOpening summaryOpening summaryWelcome to our live coverage of the continuing crisis in the Middle East. The UShas said it is conducting airstrikes in Iran, after a lull of several days in direct US attacks on targets inIran. Donald Trumpsaid America would strike Iran hard, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday: “We’re going to be hitting them very hard, because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming. ”The US military said its attacks were a “powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East”. On Wednesday Iran launched a barrage of missiles at American military installations in Jordan – its first attack in the region since the pause in fighting – meanwhile the US partnered withSaudi Arabiato strike Tehran-backed militias inIraq, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers. Elsewhere, drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at theEgyptian port of Damietta, according to Ambrey, a British maritime security firm. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes on aUS-owned floating storage facilityand aGreek-owned tanker. No injuries were reported. Smoke rises from a gas tanker at Damietta port in Egypt after reportedly being hit by a drone. Photograph: Social Media/ReutersA strike on Egypt by Iran or its allies, if confirmed, would mark a significant widening of the conflict. Asked during an Oval Office event if Iran was responsible for the strikes,Trumpresponded: “It’s a little more of the same. ”The flare-up on multiple fronts after several days of relative calm raised the risk of a return to all-out war. It also underscored the difficulty of winding down a five-month conflict. The US-Saudi strikes came hours after Israel’s prime minister,Benjamin Netanyahu, departed his first meeting with Trump since they launched the war against Iran on 28 February. In other news:The renewed hostilities sent oil prices spiking. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped7. 3% to $88 a barrel. The office of theIraqi president, Nizar Amidi, called the US-Saudi airstrikes on multiple logistics and weapons sites in eastern Iraq “a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”. Anoil refinery in Jazan, on the Red Sea coast, had temporarily shut down due to “relatively significant” damage from a Houthi attackon Saturday, a Saudi official told the Associated Press. Saudi Arabia is seeking to build an international coalition to protect shipping in the Red Sea from Houthi attacks, Reuters quoted two people familiar with the deliberations as saying.