The US military says it has begun launching strikes against Iran in retaliation for an attempted surprise attack on US forces in the Middle East.

Centcom said in

The latest hostilities came a day after the conflict expanded, with the first publicly announced joint US-Saudi attacks targeting Iranian proxies in Iraq.

When the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran in February, US President Donald Trump said the war would last only a few weeks, but it has already been going on for five months with no end in sight.

On Wednesday, Axios reported, citing an unnamed US official, that Trump had met with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, who had conveyed that Saudi Arabia wants to reduce 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 attacks while talks apparently resumed in hopes of some kind of diplomatic solution. Trump called them “very friendly negotiations,” although Tehran denied talks were taking place.

Hours before the attacks announced Wednesday, Trump vowed to retaliate against Iran for its attempt to attack U.S. troops the day before.

The US president told reporters at the White House: “We are going to hit them very hard because it is our turn to hit them.

“They know this will happen. They asked us not to do it.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had attacked a US air base and command center in Jordan “in response to acts of aggression by the child-killing US military.”

He also said naval forces had attacked three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz after they “ignored warnings” and sailed along what he described as an “unsafe and illegal route” through the vital Gulf waterway.

Last Friday, Trump suspended an intense bombing campaign that had lasted 13 consecutive nights. The United States said it had attacked Iranian weapons and military sites. Dozens of people were reported dead.

On Tuesday, Centcom said joint US-Saudi strikes hit “multiple terrorist weapons and logistics sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to more than 30 IRGC-led drone airstrikes in the past 72 hours.”

Iraq’s paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), dominated by Iranian-backed Shiite militias, said at least 20 of its members had been killed in attacks between the United States and Saudi Arabia on its bases.

The Iraqi presidency denounced the bombing of PMF bases, calling it “an unacceptable attack and a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.”

But Trump told Fox News that the attacks had been “coordinated with the Iraqi government.”

Saudi Arabia, considered the leading Sunni Muslim power, and Iran, the largest Shiite Muslim country, have been locked in a struggle for regional dominance for decades.