US strikes Iran for ninth consecutive night

By Nathan Morley

President Donald Trump declared on Monday that the latest American strikes had hit Iran “very hard,” casting the assault as retribution for three US servicemen killed in the region in recent days.

The Pentagon confirmed over the weekend that a US service member had died following an Iranian-linked attack in northern Iraq on Saturday — a loss that came just a day after a strike on a base in Jordan claimed the lives of two more American soldiers, with a third initially listed as missing.

US Central Command said it launched a fresh barrage of strikes in the early hours of Monday, marking the ninth consecutive night of American military action, as explosions echoed across Iranian territory. Washington said the strikes were aimed at military installations and communications infrastructure, intended to curb Tehran’s continued harassment of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran, in turn, claimed to have launched a surprise counterstrike in Syria and to have targeted US aircraft at Aqaba airport in Jordan. Kuwaiti forces, meanwhile, reported intercepting a number of Iranian drones entering their airspace.

Iranian state media, including the Tasnim news agency, reported that several Iranian cities had sustained damage from the American bombardment. Separate state media reports claimed two oil tankers had caught fire while attempting to cross the strait. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the vessels had strayed into what it described as a hazardous southern shipping route and had “exploded and been brought to a halt” as a result.

US Central Command flatly rejected Tehran’s account of the tanker incident.