US and Saudi hit Iran-backed fighters in Iraq

Reuters, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and CAIRO Add TT as Preferred Source The US and Saudi Arabia yesterday jointly struck Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq, the first US airstrikes in the Middle East since US President Donald Trump suspended the US bombing campaign against Iran last week. Iran, for its part, said it had fired on US bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Trump to promise retaliatory strikes against Iran, which earlier reported a US projectile hitting its northwestern city of Piranshahr near the Iraqi border. “We’ll be hitting them hard,” Trump told Fox News. Smoke rises from damaged structures at the site of a strike in Bartalla, Iraq, yesterday. Photo: AFP However, he added the possibility of future talks with Iran: “We’re going to let them keep t