Major Gulf fighting restarts as US and Saudi strike Iran's allies in Iraq

DUBAI/CAIRO, July 29 - The United States launched on Wednesday its first airstrikes in the Middle East since suspending its bombing campaign last week, hitting Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq jointly with Saudi Arabia, while Tehran spurned an Omani plan to manage the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran said it had fired on ships in the strait and at U.S. bases in Jordan, and oil prices rose again as renewed combat and diplomatic setbacks signalled no quick end to the war the United States and Israel started in February.

Washington and Riyadh said they had jointly struck Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets.

Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, powerful Iran-backed paramilitary groups incorporated into the formal Iraqi security forces, said at least 20 members were killed and 32 wounded in U.S.-Saudi strikes targeting several bases across Iraq.

It was the first major U.S. military action in the Middle East since last Friday, when President Donald Trump abruptly suspended an intensive bombing campaign after 13 days, having been advised by commanders that the strategy had run its course.

The joint strikes potentially widen the conflict by drawing Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia into combat against Shi'ite proxies of Iran on a new front. It was the first time during the war that Saudi Arabia had publicly declared its participation in joint strikes alongside the United States.

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, one of the few in the world to maintain close military and diplomatic ties with both Iran and the United States, called an emergency meeting. Washington has long called on the Baghdad government to crack down on Iran-backed paramilitaries, but efforts to do so in the past have provoked domestic unrest.

Saudi Arabia has also been drawn into the conflict on another front, with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen announcing a blockade of Saudi oil exports in the Red Sea last week and firing on ships and oil facilities.

Hours before launching the joint attacks with Saudi Arabia on Iraq, the U.S. military said its air defences had averted a surprise Iranian attack on U.S. troops in the region.

Jordan's military said its air defences had intercepted and shot down five Iranian missiles. Three of the four U.S. service members killed this month were killed in Jordan, where U.S. bases have become primary Iranian targets.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had fired several ballistic missiles at U.S. military installations in Jordan, and had struck three tankers that were attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz along an unauthorised route.

TEHRAN RULES OUT OMANI PROPOSAL

Fighting had first resumed this month after a U.S.-Iran deal reached in June on a framework to end the war collapsed over the fate of the strait, the world's most important energy shipping route, which Iran says it controls and where it aims to collect fees.

Oman proposed a plan for joint regional control of the strait this week, with the backing of Gulf states, that would allow the payment of voluntary service charges. But a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Iran had rejected the Omani proposal as "unreasonable".

The official said a 50-50 joint control arrangement with Oman would not serve Iran’s interests, though Tehran considers Oman a valuable neighbour. Iran wants sole control over the inbound route through the strait and partial control over the outbound route.

The United States has been telling ships to use a route near the Omani shore rather than sailing close to Iran. The Revolutionary Guards Navy said in a statement it continued to maintain full control over the strait and would respond to "unlawful U.S. military interference".

The renewed fighting sent oil prices rising more than $3 a barrel, the first jump since last week, with Brent crude futures again trading above $87. The price, which had briefly spiked above $100 last week for the first time since May, had tumbled into the mid-80s this week after it emerged over the weekend that Trump had called off the bombing. REUTERS