Symbolic imageUS hits dozens of Iranian targets as Iran strikes back at Jordan and Kuwait
US Central Command says it struck dozens of Revolutionary Guard targets across Iran in a two-hour wave overnight into Thursday, the first American strikes in more than five days. Iran answered with missile attacks on US bases in Jordan and Kuwait, where one person was killed. Mediators in Islamabad say talks to end the five-month war are still running.
What happened
US Central Command said it hit dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets inside Iran in what it called a heavy wave of strikes lasting two hours, overnight into Thursday, 30 July, naming military command centres, missile and drone facilities and coastal surveillance sites. It was the first US attack in more than five days, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington would hit Iran very hard following an Iranian attack on Tuesday, 28 July against a base in Jordan hosting American troops. Iranian state media reported explosions in Khuzestan province and casualties on the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz; accounts differ, with the Guardian citing three people injured and The American Conservative citing Iranian state media on three members of one family killed and two children hurt in a residential house. The IRGC said three of its members were killed by US strikes in Zanjan province, and Khuzestan's governor told the YJC agency that US strikes damaged two student dormitory complexes in Ahvaz, with some students relocated. The IRGC then said it fired on US bases in Jordan and Kuwait: Jordan reported incoming missiles without casualties, Kuwait said an Iranian strike hit a building and killed one person. A day earlier, US and Saudi forces struck Iran-backed militias in neighbouring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters and, according to the Guardian, six Iranian advisers.
The view from outside
Russian state agency TASS led on the civilian damage, reporting the wrecked Ahvaz dormitories through the Khuzestan governor rather than the military exchange. Pakistan, acting as mediator, said negotiations were continuing; its foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Islamabad was making every effort to bring all parties back to the Islamabad Memorandum signed by the US and Iran in June. According to reports cited by The American Conservative, China has secured passage for its tankers through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in direct talks with the Houthis and keeps buying Iranian crude via ship-to-ship transfers off Malaysia, remaining Tehran's top customer despite the US blockade of Hormuz.
What could happen next
The days-long pause is over and the fighting has spread beyond the two capitals: drone attacks set two gas vessels alight at Egypt's Damietta import hub, including a US-owned gas storage tanker, with no injuries reported and no clarity on who was responsible. Iran has threatened a harsh response against regional states that support US operations, which puts Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the line of fire. At home the war is unpopular: an AP poll found 33 percent of Americans think it has been worth fighting and 70 percent want a permanent ceasefire.
United States: CENTCOM says the strikes were meant to diminish threats from Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping and neighbouring Gulf countries, and Trump says it is Washington's turn to hit back hard.
Iran: Tehran presents the strikes as attacks that killed civilians and damaged student dormitories, vows retaliation against the US and a harsh response against regional states that support American operations.
Also involved