By Marwa Rashad, Mohamed Ezz, Yasmine Ghania and Nandita BoseLONDON/CAIRO/WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. carried out fresh strikes in Iran on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, further intensifying a five-month-old war that was already expanding beyond its main fronts to embroil additional countries in the region."U.S. forces began launching strikes against Iran at 8:00 p.m. ET today (0000 GMT)," U.S. Central Command said in a statement. "The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday's attempted Iranian attacks on U.S. forces based in the Middle East."

The Middle East war is expanding after 5 months, with Iran going on the offensive and the U.S. and Saudi Arabia jointly striking Iranian proxy groups in Iraq.

The authority says that the strikes are a response to attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East