US strikes Iran after Egyptian port storage tanker is hit

The US carried out fresh strikes in Iran on Wednesday night, the US military said.

Earlier on Wednesday, a drone hit a US-owned gas storage tanker at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta, British maritime security firm Ambrey said in an initial assessment.

A statement from Egypt’s petroleum ministry confirmed a fire at the port but made no mention of a drone attack.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible.

The US strikes in Iran on Wednesday followed President Donald Trump’s vow earlier ⁠in the day to retaliate against Iran for firing on US troops.

Iran confirmed overnight that it had fired on US bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and also spurned an Omani proposal to jointly manage the strait, a critical global shipping route for oil and gas.

The war began in February, when the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that Trump said would last only a few weeks. A temporary ceasefire agreement in June collapsed amid renewed fighting over the strait, which Iran says it now controls.

The US Central Command has now posted on social media saying it completed the latest strikes on Iran at 10 p.m. Wednesday in Washington (0200 GMT), two hours after they began.

“CENTCOM assets struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran,” the statement said.

It added that the targets included “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities.”

It said all Iranian attacks on US forces in the Middle East on Tuesday were successfully intercepted.