The US military launched airstrikes on Sunday targeting Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for the killing of American troops in Jordan, further widening the crossfire between the nations as they fight over the Strait of Hormuz.
The strikes, part of a week-long campaign which has seen Iran strike US-allied countries across the Middle East, comes as an interim deal seeking to find an end to the Iran war has collapsed.
The US has targeted bridges, electrical facilities and other targets in Iran, while Tehran has retaliated by hitting power and desalination plants in Kuwait. Iran also has stepped up its threats to further expand the strikes, drawing a warning overnight from the United Arab Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The US military’s Central Command in a statement said it hit “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defence facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites”.
It also said for the first time it had specifically targeting the Guard, a key power base in Iran’s theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal.
Footage released by the US military appeared to show strikes carried out by fighter jets and by Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from sea. One target site appeared to be in a valley of a mountainous region. The Guard often has missile bases and other military equipment tucked into mountain ranges.
Iran has provided no overall information on its material losses in the American campaign as the nations vie over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes in peacetime.
An Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalization, the US military said.
Since the war began, 16 US service members have been killed and over 430 wounded.
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Iranian authorities said Saturday that at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in the latest US strikes.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to target Iran’s power stations and bridges to try to compel Tehran to loosen its hold on the Strait of Hormuz. Recent attacks suggest the US military is carrying out that plan, beginning first with coastal areas of Iran on the strait.
The US in the past week also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil, and the military on Saturday said it had redirected five ships and disabled one since then.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a statement on Saturday, warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the US keeps attacking the Islamic Republic. An Iranian negotiator said Tehran was suspending its commitments to the interim deal signed about a month ago and aimed at permanently ending the fighting.
Iran’s joint military command said that US “covetousness, bullying, totalitarianism or brutality” would meet with a “devastating response”.