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

The US military says it launched "heavy" strikes against Iran on Wednesday in retaliation for attempted Iranian ballistic missile attacks on American forces. Centcom said it hit "dozens" of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in 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 targeting Iranian proxies in Iraq.When the US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran in February, President Donald Trump said the war would last only a few weeks, but it has gone on for five months with no end in sight.On Wednesday, Axios reported, citing an unnamed US official, that Trump had met with Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who had conveyed that Saudi Arabia wants to de-escalate tensions. The BBC has contacted the White House for comment. The conflict has reignited after several days of relative calm.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. The strikes on Wednesday started at 20:00 ET (01:00 BST on Thursday) and lasted about an hour, with Centcom calling them a "powerful response to yesterday's attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East". All of Iran's missiles were intercepted, Centcom said.