US says it intercepted ‘surprise’ Iranian missile attack
Incident ends a days-long pause in direct air strikes
Iran launched a “surprise” ballistic missile strike on US forces, according to the Pentagon, ending a days-long pause in direct attacks between the two warring countries.
US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said its forces intercepted all the missiles in what it called an “attempted surprise attack”.
Iran’s strike, which the US blamed on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, could put Washington and Tehran back on a path of escalating military action after a break in the hostilities that had calmed global energy markets.
The US paused strikes beginning on Friday after 13 consecutive nights of attacks, with American officials saying President Donald Trump was allowing “space” for talks with Tehran. Iran last launched an assault on American military installations in the Middle East on Friday.
Oil prices eased during the pause in the conflict, but Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped 4 per cent to $87.43 a barrel following news of the intercepted strike.
Centcom on Tuesday said IRGC “forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on US forces based in the Middle East. All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted”.
The US and Saudi Arabian forces also conducted separate strikes in Iraq on Tuesday against “Iran-aligned terrorists” that Centcom said the IRGC had ordered to attack American military targets and the kingdom’s energy infrastructure with drones over the past three days.
“US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours,” Centcom said, adding that the attacks on American forces were unsuccessful.
The military actions from Iran, the US and Saudi Arabia, along with those of militant groups, risk a wider war in the region.
The Iranian missile attack was launched as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, where he met Trump earlier on Tuesday to try to convince him to expand US military operations against Iran.
The US and Israel’s interests in the Middle East have diverged in recent months. In April, Trump announced an initial ceasefire with Tehran before Israel had achieved any of its war goals. Trump on Monday acknowledged “a little difference” in his and Netanyahu’s military objectives.
Ahead of their meeting on Tuesday, Trump said Netanyahu “wants me to stay involved” and hinted at tension between them.
Trump last week threatened to strike an Iranian nuclear facility deeply buried under Kolang Gazla known as Pickaxe Mountain. But the US has held off striking the site, which is an important target for Israel’s campaign to end Iran’s nuclear programme.
“I don’t need Bibi to tell me” about Pickaxe Mountain, Trump said before the Oval Office session with Netanyahu.
After they met, Trump wrote on social media that they “had a very good meeting! Obviously, many important subjects were discussed”.
Netanyahu said the meeting was “excellent” and “one of the best” the two have had. He stressed the “full partnership and mutual support” between the two countries and their “common goal” to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.
“I always hate to disappoint would-be critics who are trying to find cracks in our alliance, and what they find, like today, is a wall of granite,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Tuesday night. “We have a common goal and it’s going to be achieved either through diplomatic means or other means.”
As the Strait of Hormuz has become the centre point of the conflict, Israel has pushed on the nuclear issue.
American forces focused their 17 rounds of strikes earlier this month on degrading the Iranian military’s capability to threaten commercial vessels trying to transit the critical waterway, through which a fifth of oil shipments passed before the conflict.
An Omani delegation was in Tehran on Friday and Saturday to try to reach a provisional arrangement with Iran to manage shipping through the strait.
Trump earlier on Tuesday said Washington and Tehran were in “very good” talks. But he also repeated his threat to attack civilian infrastructure in Iran should the Islamic republic not reach an agreement with the US.
“If they don’t make a deal, the bridges are going to be gone,” the president told Fox News. “If I can avoid doing that, I’d like to do that.”