US President Donald Trump vowed to hit back hard at Iran after it attacked US bases in Jordan on Wednesday as the Middle East war reignited and once again drew in the Islamic republic’s proxies.
The warning came after a lull in the fighting — that had spurred hopes of a return to negotiations — appeared to end, sending oil prices jumping five per cent over fears of disruptions to global supplies.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced strikes on militant bases in Iraq, while US ally Israel accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of a truce violation.
For two days, the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia has reported drone attacks targeting crude facilities that it blamed on Iraqi armed groups allied with Tehran.
Iran, meanwhile, launched missiles at US ally Jordan, with state media later reporting an American attack near the Islamic republic’s border with Iraq.
“We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating,” Fox News’s correspondent quoted Trump as saying, adding that the US president swore for emphasis: “We are going to beat the ‘effing s’ out of them.”
Saudi security analyst and researcher Hesham Alghannam told AFP: “Tehran is now using its proxy network to sustain leverage while the diplomatic track absorbs international attention.
Iran’s state television, meanwhile, reported a US strike in the Piranshahr border area after the Fars news agency quoted an official in West Azerbaijan province as saying a missile hit an uninhabited area, leaving no casualties.
Earlier, Jordan’s army said it had intercepted five Iranian missiles, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards saying they had targeted US bases there.
“As long as the threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue… the resistance will continue,” they added.
On another front, US ally Israel accused Hezbollah of firing a drone overnight at an Israeli vehicle inside Lebanon, in what the military called “a blatant violation of the ceasefire”.
Israel fought alongside the US in the first weeks of the war against Iran while battling Hezbollah in Lebanon, but it has yet to join the latest round of strikes against the Islamic republic.
