US hits dozens of IRGC targets in Iran retaliation strikes
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- Centcom struck "dozens" of IRGC targets starting at 20:00 ET and lasting about an hour, hitting military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities — all of Iran's incoming missiles were intercepted.
- Iran's IRGC said it struck a US air base and command centre in Jordan and hit three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz that "ignored warnings" on what it called an "unsafe and illegal route."
- Donald Trump told reporters "We're going to be hitting them very hard because it's our turn to hit them," and noted Iran "asked us not to do it" — days after he suspended an intensive 13-night bombing campaign last Friday.
- Tehran denied any discussions were happening despite Trump's characterization of recent diplomacy as "very friendly negotiations," even as talks reportedly restarted after days of relative calm.
- Saudi Arabia's defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman conveyed to Trump that the kingdom wants to de-escalate tensions, per Axios — a notable position given Saudi Arabia joined Tuesday's first publicly announced joint US strikes on Iranian proxies in Iraq.
- Iraq's presidency denounced Tuesday's US-Saudi strikes on Iran-backed PMF bases as "an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty," killing at least 20 PMF members, while Trump told Fox News the strikes were "co-ordinated with the Iraqi government."
- The conflict has now stretched into its fifth month, despite Trump's February prediction after the US-Israel strikes that the war would last "only a few weeks."
Why it matters: The strikes hit dozens of IRGC sites even though Centcom intercepted all of Iran's incoming missiles, meaning the escalation cycle is producing more combat without decisive effect. Iraq's own government publicly calls the US-Saudi strikes a sovereignty violation while Trump insists they were coordinated, and Saudi Arabia is simultaneously joining strikes while privately urging de-escalation — so the coalition behind the campaign is visibly splitting in month five.
