US Central Command carried out “a heavy wave of strikes” on dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran, it said early Thursday, a day after the Iranian military force targeted American troops in the region with ballistic missiles.
CENTCOM described the strikes as “a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East.”
The targets hit in the strikes included command centers, facilities for missiles and drones, and other military and surveillance sites, aiming to “further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighboring Gulf countries,” it said.
The US attacks began at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday (0000 GMT on Thursday) and ended at 10 p.m. ET (0200 GMT on Thursday), according to CENTCOM.
The wave of strikes came hours after US President Donald Trump said it was Washington’s “turn” to strike Iran after Tehran launched missiles at US assets in Jordan on Tuesday night. Jordan’s armed forces said they’d foiled an Iranian attempt to target the kingdom with five missiles.
“We’re going to be hitting them very hard. Because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming. They’re asking us not to do it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, noting that all five missiles fired by Iran at Jordan were knocked down.
Trump also said he was briefed on a drone attack on tankers off the coast of Egypt.
“We’ll see if we get there with an agreement at some point,” Trump added of diplomatic efforts with Iran.
Iranian officials have previously vowed that if the US bombs Tehran or critical Iranian infrastructure, Iran will respond by firing missiles at Tel Aviv — something it has refrained from doing since the renewal of hostilities, aiming its fire instead at US bases and other targets in Arab Gulf states.
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