US President Donald Trump has said Iran "appears to be standing down" after it fired missiles at air bases housing US forces in Iraq.
Mr Trump, in a televised address from the White House, said no US or Iraqi lives were lost in the attacks and the bases suffered only minimal damage.
The Irbil and Al Asad bases were attacked early on Wednesday local time.
Iran said it acted in retaliation after the assassination of top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani last week.
The US drone strike targeting him and Iran-backed militia figures in the Iraqi capital Baghdad was a major escalation amid already deteriorating relations between Iran and the US.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the missile attacks as a "slap in the face" for the US and called for an end to the American presence in the Middle East.
On Wednesday evening at least two rockets fell in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where the US embassy is located. There were no reports of any damage or casualties.
The US attack on Soleimani killed members of pro-Iranian Iraqi militias, who have also said they would seek revenge.
However, US Vice President Mike Pence told CBS News that "intelligence" indicated that Iran had asked its allied militias not to attack US targets.
"We're receiving some encouraging intelligence that Iran is sending messages to those very same militias not to move against American targets or civilians, and we hope that that message continues to echo," Mr Pence told the news channel.
Donald Trump vs. Iran: It's not over
Washington (worldintr)Though President Donald Trump's showdown with Iran mercifully ended short of a full-blown war, the near-miss did nothing to defuse a confrontation almost certain to boil up again soon.
While both sides can claim strategic advances and political payoffs, the riskiest standoff between the enemies in decades may have transitioned their confrontation to a new, more dangerous phase.
That's because the structures of conflict and the diplomatic disconnect between revolutionary Iran and a nationalistic US administration that tore up the nuclear deal involving both countries are still in place.
The showdown uncorked a fierce controversy in Washington, where there's a widening partisan dispute over Trump's rationale for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, which sparked the crisis.
The week-long scare also left a chilling memory of how the impulsive choices of a seat-of-the-pants President brought his nation to the cusp of another war in the Middle East. It's possible Trump might learn the wrong lessons from his brinkmanship.
On the upside, tensions that culminated in Trump's evaluation that Iran was "standing down" after not killing any Americans in strikes at bases in Iraq did not spin out of control. Both sides were apparently able to telegraph their intentions, through public rhetoric and a Swiss diplomatic channel, to avoid miscalculations that could have spilled over into a war.
While there are hopes that stepping back from the brink will give each side an incentive to kick off a fresh diplomatic process, it's more likely they will return to the same state of mutual loathing that has prevailed for 40 years.
Iraq is still on edge -- a brace of rockets landed in the highly fortified Green Zone of Baghdad on Wednesday, the area that hosts the US embassy, which was previously attacked by a pro-Iran mob.
The drones and missiles may have been pulled back for now, but it would be naive to assume this episode is over. Events in the Middle East take months and years to play out. And Iran's history suggests that it will not view a limited missile strike as sufficient vengeance for the killing of a top leader like Soleimani, who headed the elite Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, meaning more proxy militia violence is likely.
"I think that anybody who tells you that this is over and that the retaliation has now ceased and we can all make assessments based on where we are right now ... that's very unlikely. The story is far from over," said Susan Hennessey, a former National Security Agency attorney who is now a CNN legal analyst, on "The Situation Room."
Trump backs away from further military confrontation with Iran
Donald Trump backed away from further military confrontation with Iran on Wednesday after days of escalating tensions, saying Tehran appeared to be standing down following missile attacks on two Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops.
Flanked by the vice-president, Mike Pence, the defense secretary, Mark Esper, and other high ranking military officials in uniform, Trump delivered remarks in the Grand Foyer of the White House, hours after Iran declared the attack to be retaliation for the US drone strike last week that killed the senior Iranian Gen Qassem Suleimani.
Trump pulls back for now but game of chicken with Tehran far from over
“Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world,” Trump said, reading from teleprompters. “No American or Iraqi lives were lost because of the precautions taken, the dispersal of forces, and an early warning system that worked very well.”
Later, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, said the nature of the missile damage at the targeted bases suggested the attack was intended to take US and allied lives.
“I believe, based on what I saw and what I know, that they were intended to cause structural damage, destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft and to kill personnel. That’s my own personal assessment,” Milley said. Satellite images showed the missiles destroyed buildings at al-Asad base in Anbar province.
A few hours after the president spoke, the fortified diplomatic area in Baghdad, the Green Zone, was hit by two rockets. Initial reports suggest they were fired locally, and caused no casualties, but they were a reminder of the threat of Iraqi militias, some with close ties to Tehran.
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