US Strikes Iran Again, Reviving Fears of Wider War
A days-long pause ends after Tehran's attack on American troops in Jordan
By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
The pause didn't last. The U.S. military launched fresh strikes on Iranian targets after Tehran hit a Jordanian base hosting American troops on Wednesday — an attack that followed joint U.S.-Saudi strikes on militants in Iraq a day earlier. The Pentagon said it struck "dozens" of targets belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
President Trump had vowed to hit Iran "very hard" in response, and made good on it hours later. The exchange comes after several days of relative calm that had followed earlier rounds of strikes, a lull U.S. and Israeli officials had used to signal the crisis might be cooling. It wasn't. Officials on multiple sides now describe a real risk of the conflict widening into all-out war across the region, though no government has said that is its goal.
What's confirmed: an attack on U.S. forces in Jordan, a U.S. retaliatory strike campaign against IRGC-linked targets, and a president who has publicly committed to escalation rather than de-escalation. What's not yet confirmed: casualty figures from either side's strikes, or whether Tehran intends to respond again. Readers should treat early death tolls and damage claims from any single government — American, Iranian or otherwise — with the caution such claims have earned in past rounds of this fight.
— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian and NPR News.
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