US, Saudi Arabia strike 'Iran-backed' militias in Iraq, Iran targets US base

HEADLINES IN BRIEF

US and Saudi Arabia kill at least 20 in strikes on 'Iran-backed' militias in Iraq READ MORE BELOW

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "positive and productive" talks in Washington.

Iran's IRGC fired missiles at a US airbase in Jordan, claiming it was a response to "aggressive actions" by the US military. READ MORE BELOW

Israeli forces storm refugee camp and memorial for 'No Other Land' activist in West Bank

IN DETAIL

US-Saudi strikes in Iraq kills at least 20 people

US Central Command (Centcom) says US and Saudi forces carried out strikes against "Iran-backed terrorists" in Iraq, "that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) directed" to attack bases and energy infrastructure.

Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) says the US-Saudi strikes killed at least 20 of its members and wounded 32 others across seven provinces. 

Hours before the US-Saudi attack in Iraq, Centcom said Iran had launched an "attempted surprise attack" on US forces in the Middle East. Iran claimed this attack was itself a response to "acts of aggression" from "the American child-killing army".

In a statement, Riyadh said that it took part in strikes as a "response to recent drone attacks" targeting Saudi oil infrastructure. According to Saudi defense ministry spokesperson Maj-Gen Turki al-Maliki, "Iran-backed terrorist militias" had been launching drones from Iraqi territories at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday, Houthi rebels said that they also launched drone strikes targeting oil infrastructure in response to a Saudi drone breaching Yemen's airspace. The oil facilities they targeted are used to transport oil from Saudi Arabia's Eastern Region to the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, which is used to bypass the Iranian forces on the Strait of Hormuz.

Jordan intercepts Iranian missiles targeting a US base

Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it fired ballistic missiles at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base and the headquarters of the US military's Central Command in Jordan on Wednesday (July 29). Jordan's military says five missiles were "intercepted and destroyed."

Hours before this, the US also said it had knocked down a barrage of Iranian missiles targeting American forces in the Middle East, which brought a brief pause in fighting between Tehran and Washington to an end. The pause had been established on Friday (July 24).

"As long as threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue and illegal and vicious actions by American forces against our interests continue, the resistance will continue," the IRGC said in a statement carried by Iran's IRIB broadcaster.

The Iranian attacks came as Donald Trump was meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House. Some commentators suggest that Iran's attacks were preemptive strikes or an attempt to express their dissatisfaction with the meeting to Trump.

On Wednesday, the IRGC said that it also "struck and stopped" three oil tankers in Hormuz that it says were using an "unsafe and illegal route."