Iran launches missiles as 20 fighters killed by US-Saudi strikes on Iraq

Iran has launched a barrage of missiles at American forces in the Middle East as the US partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Tehran-backed militias in neighbouring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters.

Six Iranian advisers were also killed in the US-Saudi strike, two Iraqi militia officials said.

Elsewhere, drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at the Egyptian port of Damietta, 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.

The flare-up 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 is 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.

Meanwhile, a Fox News reporter said in an on-air segment that he spoke to President Donald Trump who, using a series of vulgarities, told him the US will hit back hard in response to the Iranian attacks.

Later, asked during an Oval Office event if Iran was responsible for the strikes on the natural gas vessels, Mr Trump responded: “It’s a little more of the same.”

“It’s going to be straightening out,” Trump said. He added: “In the meantime, we’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming. They’re asking us not to do it.”

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.

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 are “still trying with both sides” to restore calm and get the ceasefire back on track.

The renewed hostilities sent oil prices spiking. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 3.1% to 84.58 dollars a barrel.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a key US military hub for the region, in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency.

Jordan’s military said five Iranian missiles had been intercepted and destroyed.

The US military later announced that 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.

Those groups joined the fight against the so-called Islamic State group after it seized large sections of Iraq in 2014. The Iraqi government later designated it as an “independent military formation” within the armed forces but the militias have significant autonomy, and some have attacked US facilities.

The office of Iraqi President Nizar Amidi condemned Wednesday’s US-Saudi air strikes, calling them “an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, targeting its official security institutions”.

Iraq’s National Security Council also condemned the strikes, saying in a statement that they 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.