How and why did Iran attack US bases: A timeline of escalating tensions

Tensions between Iran and the United States have been steadily escalating for months. After a US strike killed a top Iranian commander last week and Iran launched retaliation strikes on Wednesday.

BS : Tensions between Iran and the United States have been steadily escalating for months. After a US strike killed a top Iranian commander last week and Iran launched retaliation strikes on Wednesday.

April 8, 2019: Washington declares Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps a "terrorist" group. Its Quds Force, which operates abroad, is also put on the blacklist.

May 5: White House national security adviser John Bolton announces the deployment of an aircraft carrier and a bomber task force to the Middle East.

May 8: A year after Washington unilaterally withdrew from an international 2015 deal curbing Iran's nuclear programme and reimposed sanctions, Tehran warns it is prepared to resume nuclear activity.

Trump announces new measures against Iran's steel and mining sectors.

May 12: four ships, including three oil tankers, are damaged in mysterious attacks in the Gulf that the United States blames on Iran.

May 25: the United States says it is deploying 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East to counter "credible threats" from Iran.

June 13: Two tankers, Norwegian and Japanese, come under attack in the Gulf of Oman. Washington, London and Riyadh blame Iran, which denies involvement.

June 20: Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it shot down a US drone that violated Iranian airspace near the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump approves a retaliatory strike, but cancels it at the last minute.

June 24: Trump announces "hard-hitting" financial sanctions on Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian military leaders.

FAA restricts US air carriers from flying over Iraq, Iran and Persian Gulf

Security has been beefed up around the White House amid heightened tensions with Iran.

International News : The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday said that it was restricting all civilian US aircraft from operating in the airspace over Iraq, Iran, and the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

"The FAA issued Notices to Airmen (NOTAMS) tonight outlining flight restrictions that prohibit US civil aviation operators from operating in the airspace over Iraq, Iran, and the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The FAA will continue closely monitoring events in the Middle East. We will continue coordinating with our national security partners and sharing information with US air carriers and foreign civil aviation authorities," the agency said in a statement citing CNN.

This comes after Iran launched a series of attacks on US targets in Iraq including the targetting of two bases at Al-Asad and Abril with over a dozen ballistic missiles.

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The attacks came in retaliation to the killing of senior Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Iran has threatened to attack inside America if the US responds to missile attacks. Meanwhile, a White House official said that President Donald Trump will not deliver an address tonight following the missile attacks.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham also said that a separate written statement will not be issued. A statement was issued earlier where Trump was briefed on the missile attack.

Security has been beefed up around the White House amid heightened tensions with Iran, CNN reported citing a law enforcement official.

Iraq asks foreign troops to leave; Trump threatens Iran with retaliation

Iran and the United States have been competing for clout in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Iraq's parliament called on Sunday for US and other foreign troops to leave as a backlash grows against the US killing of a topIranian general, and President Donald Trump doubled down on threats to target Iranian cultural sites if Tehran retaliates.

Deepening a crisis that has heightened fears of a major Middle East conflagration, Iran said it was taking another step back from commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers.

Iran's most prominent general, Qassem Soleimani, was killed on Friday in a U.S. drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport, an attack that carried U.S.-Iranian hostilities into uncharted waters.

An Iranian government minister denounced Trump as a "terrorist in a suit" after the U.S. president sent a series of Twitter posts on Saturday threatening to hit 52 Iranian sites, including targets important to Iranian culture, if Tehran attacks Americans or US assets to avenge Soleimani's death.

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Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Washington from Florida on Sunday evening, Trump stood by those comments.

"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way," he said.

Democratic critics of the Republican president have said Trump was reckless in authorizing the strike, and some said his comments about targeting cultural sites amounted to threats to commit war crimes. Many asked why Soleimani, long seen as a threat by U.S. authorities, had to be killed now.

Republicans in Congress have generally backed Trump's move.