Iran Fires Missiles at US Forces and Trump Orders New Strikes, Ending the Pause as Oil Rebounds

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched multiple ballistic missiles in an "attempted surprise attack" on American forces in the Middle East late Tuesday, and that all of the missiles were intercepted. President Donald Trump ordered a new round of strikes to "hold Iranian forces accountable," CENTCOM said, ending a multi-day lull in the fighting. CENTCOM said the missiles were fired at about 5:45 p.m. Eastern time and directed at a United States military base in Jordan, the first such attack since Trump suspended American strikes on Friday to allow diplomacy to continue.

The reversal was felt in energy markets. West Texas Intermediate crude erased an earlier decline to rise about 4.4% to $82.73 a barrel, according to CNBC, and equity-index futures fell. The move came days before this week's Federal Reserve meeting, adding a fresh source of pressure on energy prices that feed into inflation. Only two days earlier, Brent crude had fallen toward $90 a barrel after both sides halted strikes and Tehran opened talks with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported. Trump had said there was a "good chance" of progress in negotiations, though Iran earlier denied any talks were under way, according to The Hindu.

The human cost has risen on both sides. The Pentagon's most recent figures, cited by Dawn, record at least 624 American service members wounded since the strikes began in February, 417 of them in the operation the military calls Epic Fury. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington for his first meeting with Trump since the joint United States-Israeli attacks, Deutsche Welle reported, and Washington confirmed a new round of Israeli-Lebanese talks.

Assessments of Iran's position diverge. The Israeli outlet Ynet argued that Iran's economy has absorbed damage of about $200 billion, roughly half its annual output, and cannot sustain fighting for more than a few weeks, with subsidized staple goods rising in price. Iranian state accounts stress resilience and continuity of oil operations. What Tuesday's exchange made clear is that the pause was informal and has now broken, with CENTCOM reporting a direct Iranian strike on American forces and Trump ordering retaliation in response.