The US military said in a statement on Thursday it completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran, which lasted two hours and hit dozens of targets, with Washington casting the strikes as a “powerful response” to Iranian missiles launched towards US forces in the Middle East a day earlier.The US military said on Tuesday it intercepted multiple ballistic missiles launched by Iran towards US forces in what Washington called “an attempted surprise attack” by Tehran. Iran confirmed it had fired on US bases in Jordan.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.President Donald Trump said after the missiles were intercepted that US forces would retaliate. “We’re going to hit them very hard,” he said.The US Central Command described the latest strikes on X as “a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East.”The Central Command said the American strikes began at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday (0000 GMT on Thursday) and ended at 10 p.m. ET (0200 GMT on Thursday).“CENTCOM assets struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities,” the US Central Command said in a statement on Wednesday.The Iran war began on February 28 when the US and Israel attacked Iran and Tehran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states.US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have since killed thousands and displaced millions.Read more: Trump says US to hit Iran ‘hard’ after attack on bases in Jordan