The United States launched fresh attacks on Iran to ‘punish’ it for the deaths of two servicemen in Jordan
Tehran – The United States and Iran traded missiles and airstrikes on Sunday as Washington sought to ”punish” Tehran for the US military’s first losses since open hostilities in the Middle East war resumed.
A preliminary deal aimed at ending the war has collapsed as the foes fight to break a deadlock over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway key to the world’s oil supply.
Iran said it targeted two US bases in Kuwait in response to more than a week of intensifying attacks, which Tehran says have hit transport and infrastructure sites, including an under-construction nuclear power plant.
Jordan also reported intercepting missiles, a day after the US military said two service members were killed there Friday and another had gone missing in action as they ”defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks”.
US Central Command announced on Sunday that a service member died in northern Iraq during the controlled detonation of an unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone.
The US military carried out an eighth consecutive night of strikes against Iran to ”swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members”, Central Command said.
Saturday’s death brought to 17 the confirmed number of American military fatalities since the US and Israel launched the war with a wave of strikes on Iranian targets on February 28.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said the United States had attacked the unfinished Darkhovin nuclear power plant in the country’s southwest, calling it ”an aggressive and brutal act contrary to international law”.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog said it was looking into the report, noting the plant ”contained no nuclear material when last visited by the IAEA”.
Nonetheless, IAEA director Rafael Grossi reiterated his ”call for military restraint in the vicinity of all nuclear-related sites”, the agency said in a post on X.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi meanwhile said on X that Tehran ”will take appropriate action to defend its national interests and security.”
– ‘Treacherous’ attacks –
After air raid sirens sounded in Jordan, Israel’s military said its forces along with Jordan’s had intercepted an Iranian missile heading towards the Jordanian port city of Aqaba — just across the border from Israel’s resort town of Eilat.
Iran did not immediately claim the attack, but the US embassy in Amman had earlier warned its citizens of a ”specific and credible threat” targeting Aqaba’s port and airport.
”If Iran fires missiles at Israel, we will attack them with full force,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said, adding it was ”prepared for both defensive and offensive” action against Tehran if need be.
Jordan later said it had summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires to strongly protest the ”continuation of brutal and unjustified Iranian acts of aggression targeting the Kingdom’s territory”.
In the Gulf, which has borne the brunt of Iran’s retaliatory attacks, Kuwait’s electricity ministry said a power and water plant was attacked for a second consecutive day, caus…