US military says latest strikes on Iran last two hours, hitting dozens of targets

By Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Wednesday it completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran, which lasted two hours and hit dozens of targets, with Washington casting the strikes as a “powerful response” to Iranian missiles launched towards U.S. forces in the Middle East a day earlier.

The U.S. military said on Tuesday it intercepted multiple ballistic missiles ​launched by Iran towards U.S. forces in what Washington called ‌”an attempted surprise attack” by Tehran. Iran confirmed it had fired on U.S. bases in Jordan.

President Donald Trump said after the missiles were intercepted that U.S. forces would retaliate. “We’re going to hit them very hard,” he said.

The U.S. Central Command described the latest strikes on X as “a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on U.S. forces based in the Middle East.”

The Central Command said the American strikes began at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday (0000 GMT on Thursday) and ended at 10 p.m. ET (0200 GMT on Thursday).

“CENTCOM assets struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities,” the U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Iran war began on February ‌28 when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran and ⁠Tehran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host U.S. bases.

U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have since killed thousands and displaced millions.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Michael Perry)