US Central Command has released more details about the strikes, saying it has hit more than 85 targets.
In a post on X, it said the strikes were conducted at 4pm Eastern time (9pm UK time) in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups.
The strikes “employed more than 125 precision munitions” and involved several aircraft including long-range bombers flown from the US, it said.
Bombing will likely continue for multiple nights – and Israel may be involved
This won’t just be one strike, but a so-called campaign of bombing over several nights, US reporter Mark Stone has said.
There is some suggestion that some of those in Syria were carried out by Israel, he added.
Explosions reported earlier took place in the east of Syria, 300 miles north of Tower 22 where three US soldiers were killed last weekend, said Stone.
Syrian state media has reported a number of casualties.
“I think there will be a few nights of bombing trying to reestablish deterrence and to take out Iranian proxies in the region,” said Stone.
The US has made clear that “what we will see in the coming days is a tiered reaction”.
“It won’t just be one strike, it will be a campaign, as some here in America are describing it.”
He continued: “But this is not, as some on the right of politics here in America wanted to see, indeed Donald Trump himself, striking back at Iran itself. That at the moment is not on the cards.”
Stone added: “This is a very, very, very delicate moment.”
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