US strikes Iran as Gulf allies face missile attacks

The United States launched new strikes on Iran on Sunday as Tehran fired drones and missiles at US Gulf allies, deepening a military confrontation that has killed more American troops and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command said a US service member was killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone. A second service member was wounded and was receiving treatment for a minor injury, the command said.

The military also said personnel found “unidentified remains” at the site of an earlier Iranian strike in Jordan that killed two US service members and left another missing. An examination was under way to verify the remains. The Guardian reported that 17 US service members have been killed since the war began.

The latest US strikes came in response to the deadly attack in Jordan. Central Command said it hit “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites.” It said the operation was intended to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and to “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces.”

The Guardian reported that US military footage appeared to show fighter jets and sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles striking targets, including one site in a mountainous valley. Iranian media said the US attacks hit areas in Hormozgan and Khuzestan provinces and Qeshm Island, according to Al Jazeera, whose correspondent in Tehran reported the strikes were less intense than previous nights of US attacks.

Iran’s atomic energy agency said the United States also struck the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in the southwest, state television reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was looking into the reports and said the site was in the “very early stages of construction” and contained no nuclear material when inspectors last visited. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC reviewed by The Guardian showed earth clearing but little construction at the Darkhovin nuclear plant site as of July 9.

Iranian authorities said at least 50 people were killed and 517 wounded in the latest US strikes. Iran has not provided an overall accounting of its materiel losses.

Iran, meanwhile, fired drones and missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain, both of which host US military installations. Kuwait said one attack started a fire at a power and water plant. Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy condemned the “heinous Iranian aggression,” while Bahrain’s military said its air defenses thwarted “treacherous” Iranian attacks.

Iran’s army said one of its Sunday attacks on Kuwait targeted a US ammunition depot at Camp al-Adiri and air defense radars at Ali Al Salem airbase, which hosts US personnel. The Iranian military also said its naval air defense systems shot down a US LUCAS drone over southern Iran.

Sirens were reported in Jordan after an Iranian missile was fired toward the Jordanian city of Aqaba, Al Jazeera reported. Israel’s military told AFP that Israeli and Jordanian forces intercepted the missile. Israel warned that missiles launched toward Jordan could cause fire to spill into Israeli territory for the first time in weeks.

Tensions also rose in the Strait of Hormuz. Al Jazeera reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it blocked two ships that tried to use an “unsafe route” and said both had been involved in an unspecified “accident.” Shipping traffic in the strait has largely stalled as last month’s interim US-Iran deal to end the fighting has crumbled, The Guardian reported.

Paul Musgrave, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera that Iran has the “upper hand” in commitment to the conflict because Tehran views it as existential. “Since February, the asymmetry on how interests have been conducted has been clear: the regime in Tehran is fighting an existential war. The United States and Israel are fighting a war over policy choices,” he said.