US launches 'powerful' strikes on Iran after attempted attack on American troops

US launches 'powerful' strikes on Iran after attempted attack on American troopsImage source, ReutersPublished30 July 2026, 02:01 BSTUpdated 11 minutes agoThe US military says it has begun launching strikes against Iran in retaliation for an attempted surprise attack on American forces in the Middle East.Centcom said on X the strikes were "a powerful response" to Tuesday's firing by Iran on US bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz.The latest hostilities came a day after the conflict expanded with the first publicly announced joint US-Saudi strikes, which targeted Iranian proxies in Iraq.When the US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran in February, Trump said the war would last only a few weeks, but it has now gone on for five months with no end in sight.The conflict has reignited after several days of relative calm this week. For days, both sides halted strikes as talks apparently restarted in hopes of some type of diplomatic solution. Trump called them "very friendly negotiations", though Tehran denied any discussions were happening. Hours before the announced strikes on Wednesday, Trump vowed to retaliate against Iran for their attempted attack on US troops a day earlier.The US president told reporters at the White House: "We're going to be hitting them very hard because it's our turn to hit them. "They know it's coming. They asked us not to do it."Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had targeted a US air base and a command centre in Jordan "in response to the acts of aggression of the American child-killing army".It also said naval forces had struck three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz after they "ignored warnings" and sailed along what it described as an "unsafe and illegal route" through the vital Gulf waterway.Earlier this week, there was a three-day lull in hostilities. That followed 13 consecutive nights of bombi...