Iran War Strait of Hormuz

Mediators have made progress in efforts to bring the United States and Iran back to negotiations and prevent an all-out war in the Middle East. That's according to two regional officials who spoke to The Associated Press. But scattered attacks by armed groups across the region underscored the lingering tensions. Neither the U.S. nor Iran have claimed any strikes for three days. Mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan are working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. has paused attacks after targeting Iranian areas in response to Iran firing at ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military says it successfully intercepted an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi Arabia’s forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. U.S. Central Command in a statement Tuesday says further attacks on American troops or Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure risked additional action and that U.S. forces “remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness.” The U.S. and Iran had experienced a brief period of calm, during which neither announced attacks for days following weeks of escalation over the Strait of Hormuz. There was no immediate comment from Tehran on the U.S. military statement or the strikes.

The U.S. military says it has completed what it describes as “a heavy wave of strikes against Iran” conducted in response to an earlier Iranian missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan. U.S. Central Command said in a social media post early Thursday that over the span of two hours they struck “dozens” of targets belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, including military command centers as well as missile and drone facilities, and coastal surveillance and defense sites. The latest barrage came after the U.S. partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Iran-backed militias in neighboring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers.