By Nayera Abdallah and Eman Abouhassira
DUBAI, July 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. said it had completed an eighth straight night of attacks against Iran after earlier announcing that two U.S. military personnel were killed in Jordan, while U.S. allies in the region reported more Iranian attacks on Sunday.
The U.S. and Iran have intensified attacks as an interim ceasefire deal signed a month ago has unravelled and a struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz has deepened, raising the possibility of a return to all-out hostilities.
Israeli officials said Israel was preparing to receive more U.S. refuelling aircraft after the U.S. and Iran have escalated strikes, and ahead of a possible expansion of U.S. military operations against Iran.
U.S. Central Command said the latest airstrikes, beginning at 6 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) on Saturday, were designed “to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan.”
Central Command later said it had completed its wave of attacks, hitting Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defence facilities.
The conflict, which began when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28 hoping to disable its nuclear and missile programmes and degrade its regional proxies, has led to major disruption to energy supplies and fears over global inflation.
GULF STATES SAY THEY COME UNDER FRESH IRANIAN ATTACK
Iranian reports said the U.S. carried out an attack near Sirik in southern Iran, and near Shadegan, close to the border with Iraq. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization condemned a U.S. attack on the site of a nuclear power plant under construction in Darkhovin, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported, without saying when the strike took place.
In response to the latest strikes, Iran carried out a drone attack that targeted U.S. military assets and equipment at Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, Iranian state TV reported early Sunday. Both bases have been targeted as part of Iran’s attacks against U.S. assets and allies in the Gulf since last week.
Kuwait, which had come under sustained Iranian attack on Saturday, again intercepted Iranian missiles and drones on Sunday, its army said, while the Electricity Ministry said a desalination plant had been attacked for the second day running, causing a fire.
Bahrain’s air defences also intercepted an Iranian attack on Sunday, its state TV reported. Sirens sounded in Jordan, and Israel’s military said it had detected the launch of missiles from Iran towards the Jordanian city of Aqaba.
In recent days both sides have taken aim at shipping traffic, with the U.S. saying it is enforcing a naval blockade on Iran and Tehran saying it targets vessels violating its rules on navigating the Strait of Hormuz, which usually handles one-fifth of global oil supply.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday four vessels had attempted to transit the strait via an “unsafe route” with U.S. backing after ignoring IRGC warnings. It said two had abandoned the attempt while the other two were involved in an “accident”. It did not elaborate.
DEATHS OF TWO U.S. SERVICE MEMBERS
Central Command said the deaths of two of its service personnel had occurred on Friday and that a third U.S. service member was missing in action. The announcement brought the number of U.S. service members killed since the war began to 16, while more than 420 have been wounded.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”
Iran’s Health Ministry said on Saturday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 wounded in U.S. strikes on the country over the past three weeks alone.
Overall, thousands have been killed and several million internally displaced in the conflict, mainly in Iran and in Lebanon, where a war between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah was reignited.
In a written statement carried by Iranian state media late on Saturday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said U.S. actions had shown that U.S. President Donald Trump’s signature was “utterly worthless and devoid of credibility”.
The statement warned of “even heavier costs and further humiliation” for the United States. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Khamenei’s whereabouts remain a mystery. He has not been seen in public since before his father and predecessor as supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran on February 28.
(Additional reporting by Enas Alashray and Hatem Maher in Cairo, Michael Martina in Washington; Writing by Lincoln Feast and Gareth Jones; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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