WASHINGTON (AP) — The US military hit targets in Iran on Tuesday, and Tehran fired missiles and drones in response, as hostilities flared once again in an intermittent war that has lasted more than six months.

The Iranian Red Crescent said four people were killed, including a child and over 50 others were wounded after a US strike hit a home that was hosting a wedding in the town of Kuhestak in the country’s south.

The US strikes followed others on Sunday that abruptly ended a month without military action and threatened to fully reignite a conflict that has spiked global oil prices and posed political problems for Republicans in November’s midterm congressional elections. The renewed fighting comes after US President Donald Trump had appeared to pivot toward trying to bend Iran to his will through economic sanctions.

“If the failed nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings,” Trump warned on social media.

US Central Command said the latest strikes were in response to Tehran trying to attack commercial ships and American forces in the Middle East. Trump offered additional explanations, first writing on Truth Social that the US strikes were in retaliation for Tehran’s “failed attempt” to lay mines along the Strait of Hormuz.

He later told Fox News that the US strikes were actually in response to Iran trying to rebuild its radar.

“They tried to rebuild their radar because they can’t see anything,” Trump told Fox. “We waited until it was almost built and then we hit it.”

A day earlier, Trump pledged to respond to Iran’s Sunday targeting of US forces in Jordan, offering another possible explanation for Tuesday’s strikes around the Hormuz.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard claimed to have retaliated on Tuesday by again firing ballistic missiles at a US base in Jordan along the Gulf of Aqaba coast, according to Iran’s state television. Explosions that appeared to be interceptions of incoming air attacks were seen over the southern Jordanian city of Aqaba.

While the IRGC claimed to have killed a large number of US forces, two US officials told Reuters that no casualties have been reported.

The Jordanian army said it intercepted 10 of the 13 missiles fired by Iran, while three of the projectiles were allowed to fall in remote areas.

Residents of the southern Israeli city of Eilat heard blasts, possibly from impacts or interceptions from the attack.

Iran’s military warns of ‘devastating blows’ as country reports attack on........

© The Times of Israel