Qassim Abdul-Zahra
Updated ,first published
Baghdad: US President Donald Trump said a retaliatory attack on Iran was imminent after Tehran launched a barrage of missiles toward American forces in the Middle East.
“We’re going to be hitting them very hard, because it’s our turn to hit ’em. They know it’s coming, they’re asking us not to do it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon (US time).
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it had fired ballistic missiles at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a key US military hub for the region, Iranian state media reported.
Earlier, the US partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Tehran-backed militias in neighbouring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers.
Trump said five Iranian rockets were intercepted in Jordan and US forces were unharmed. “But they nevertheless took a shot, so it’s our turn.”
Earlier, the president put it in blunt terms when he spoke to Fox News. “We’re going to beat the f—ing shit out of them,” he said.
Elsewhere, drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at the Egyptian port of Damietta on Wednesday (Middle East time), according to Ambrey, a British maritime security firm. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes on a US-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker. No injuries were reported.
Egypt, a close US ally and regional mediator, is one of the only countries in the Middle East to have been spared direct military action during the war. A strike by Iran or its allies, if confirmed, would mark a significant widening of the conflict.
“I’ve been briefed. It’s a little more of the same. But it’s going to be straightening out,” Trump said of the Egypt strikes, without elaborating.
The flare-ups on multiple fronts, after several days of relative calm, raised the risk of a return to all-out war. It also underscored the difficulty of winding down a five-month conflict that has jolted the world economy and is unpopular among Americans. The fighting will also likely to add to concerns that the US is further drawing down already diminished stockpiles of sophisticated munitions needed to defend its bases and allies.
Before the latest eruption, mediators had expressed optimism about bringing the US and Iran back to the negotiating table. An interim agreement collapsed in recent weeks over renewed fighting in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies that Iranian attacks have again effectively closed.
A regional official said mediators were “still trying with both sides” to restore calm and get the ceasefire back on track. He gave no details on whether progress was being made and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door diplomacy.
Trump said he was still interested in pursuing an agreement, but the latest Iranian aggression required a response.
The renewed hostilities sent oil prices spiking. The price of Brent Crude rose more than 7 per cent to $US88 a barrel.
Saudi Arabia had accused the Iraqi militias of firing drones against its oil facilities over the past two days. An umbrella group of Iraqi militias initially denied the allegations, while another Iran-backed group – the Houthi rebels in Yemen – said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of a separate-but-related conflict.
The US military said American and Saudi fighter aircraft had struck multiple logistics and weapons sites in eastern Iraq in response to the alleged drone attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Defence Ministry warned that it “does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression”.
The Popular Mobilisation Forces, a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed armed groups that is officially under the command of the Iraqi military, said at least 20 fighters were killed and 32 others wounded in the overnight strikes. Two Iraqi militia officials told The Associated Press that six Iranian advisers were also killed. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly.
The coalition joined the fight against the Islamic State group after it seized large sections of Iraq in 2014. The Iraqi government later designated the coalition as an “independent military formation” within the armed forces, but the militias have significant autonomy and some have attacked U.S. facilities.
Iraq’s government decried the US-Saudi attacks, though the Fox News reporter said Trump told him they were done in coordination with the Iraqi government.
The office of Iraqi President Nizar Amidi called the airstrikes “a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”.
Iraq’s National Security Council said the strikes had been carried out “while the Iraqi government was in contact with relevant parties to investigate and address all the concerns raised by the Saudi and American sides.” It said “a number of innocent people” had been killed and wounded.
A visit to Saudi Arabia by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi that had been scheduled for Thursday was postponed indefinitely, said two Iraqi government officials on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly.
Saudi Arabia is also locked in a renewed conflict with the Houthis. The rebels have declared a blockade of Saudi shipping that could choke off another crucial Middle East trade route, the Bab el-Mandeb strait from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden.
On Monday, the Houthis said they had launched drones targeting oil facilities used to transport oil across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, a key bypass for Saudi exports blocked by Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
The rebels said their attack was in response to a Saudi drone they said had breached Yemen’s airspace.
Planet Labs satellite imagery from Monday analysed by AP showed damage to Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil-processing facility. The massive facility is capable of processing approximately 7 million barrels of crude oil per day.
Separately, a regional official said an oil refinery in Jazan, on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, had temporarily shut down due to “relatively significant” damage from a Houthi attack on Saturday. The official, who was not authorised to brief journalists and spoke on condition of anonymity, said it would take several days to be repaired. The refinery produces 400,000 barrels per day.
The Strait of Hormuz has been a major flashpoint in the conflict. Iran’s deputy foreign minister said his country had rejected a proposal from Oman, which lies on the other side of the strait, to jointly manage ship traffic.
In an interview with Iran’s state-run television, Kazem Gharibabadi said Oman’s proposal included dividing the strait into two routes.
Iran offered a counterproposal with a temporary plan for the transit of vessels through its territorial waters, he said, adding that Tehran’s policy is for the strait “never to return to its prewar situation,” when ships moved freely.
AP, Reuters
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