American and Saudi fighter jets attacked Iranian-linked militias in Iraq on Wednesday, and Iran fired missiles at military bases in Jordan and oil tankers, ending a days-long pause in direct fighting between the United States and Iran.
The latest strikes further widened the war in the Middle East, drawing Iran-allied groups in Iraq and Yemen, and potentially Lebanon, into the fighting. Their involvement raised the question of whether Iran could be encouraging its proxies to open additional fronts in a war that threatens to embroil more countries in the region.
The United States accused the Iranian military on Wednesday of directing its allies in Iraq to attack “U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure,” in what would be a serious escalation. The Iranian-allied Houthi militia in Yemen said it had targeted a Saudi oil tanker on Tuesday.
Since the collapse of a cease-fire between the United States and Iran this month, more countries have been drawn in, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan.
Wednesday’s attacks followed days of relative calm, during which President Trump had raised the prospect of new peace talks even as he made repeated threats against Iran. The Iranian foreign ministry condemned the U.S.-Saudi strikes as an attempt to broaden the conflict.
According to “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Trump said Iran’s latest strikes were a surprise. American forces had only a few minutes’ notice to shoot down the incoming Iranian missiles, he said. “We’ll be hitting them hard,” the president told a correspondent for the program.
The Jordanian military said it had shot down five missiles that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed were fired in retaliation for American aggression.
The U.S. military said that the strikes in Iraq were in retaliation for more than 30 drone attacks by Iranian proxy groups in the past 72 hours. No Iraqi militia group has claimed responsibility for the strikes.
The Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement that the country was not seeking escalation but would respond to any aggression.
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi of Iraq called the U.S.-Saudi strikes “an unacceptable aggression.” The Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of Iraqi militias, many of which have close ties to Iran, said in a statement that at least 20 fighters were killed in the strikes.
Separately, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said its forces had struck three tankers, but it did not say where the ships were located.
Here’s what else we’re covering.
Iraqi militias: The P.M.F. is an umbrella group of Shiite militias that banded together in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group, which had seized large parts of Iraq. It has gained political influence and come under the authority of the national security forces in recent years, but some militias still operate with a large degree of Independence.
Oil prices jump: The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, rose sharply on Wednesday following the attacks.
Lebanon: The Israeli military said Wednesday that Hezbollah had launched an explosive drone at one of its vehicles in southern Lebanon. A Hezbollah spokesman said the group did not claim responsibility for an operation in the ridge area.
- Credits: The New York Times
- Authors: Lara Jakes, Jenny Gross and Raja Abdulrahim
- Photo: Agence France-Presse
