The United States and Iran exchanged missile strikes and airstrikes Sunday, as an interim ceasefire signed a month earlier collapsed amid an escalating struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries a fifth of the world's oil supply.
The US military said it had completed an eighth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, aimed at degrading Tehran's ability to threaten shipping in the strait and to ‘swiftly punish’ Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces blamed for attacks on American troops in Jordan. Central Command said the latest wave hit Iranian coastal surveillance and air defence facilities.
The escalation followed confirmation that two US service members were killed in Jordan on Friday, with a third listed as missing in action. That brought the confirmed US military death toll to 16 since the war began on February 28, when Washington and Israel launched strikes intended to disable Iran's nuclear and missile programmes.
More than 420 US personnel have been wounded. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the deaths would only ‘stiffen’ American resolve.
Iran's health ministry said 50 people had been killed and more than 500 wounded by US strikes over the past three weeks alone. Thousands have died and several million been displaced across the wider conflict, which has also reignited fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran said it targeted two US bases in Kuwait, at Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, in retaliation. Kuwait's electricity ministry reported a desalination and power plant had been struck for a second consecutive day, sparking a fire. Bahrain's air defences said they intercepted a separate Iranian attack, while Jordan's military said it shot down three missiles after air raid sirens sounded nationwide. Israel's military said it had detected missiles fired towards the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, near its border, and that Israeli and Jordanian forces intercepted at least one. Jordan summoned Iran's charge d'affaires to protest what it called ‘brutal and unjustified’ attacks on its territory.
Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation accused the US of striking the under-construction Darkhovin nuclear plant in the country's southwest, calling it unlawful. The IAEA said it was investigating but noted the site held no nuclear material and remained in early construction. Director Rafael Grossi renewed his call for military restraint near nuclear-related sites.
The Revolutionary Guards said it had stopped two vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz via an ‘unsafe route,’ while two others abandoned the attempt, as Washington enforces a naval blockade on Iranian ports and Tehran polices shipping through the strait.
In a statement carried by state media, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei — whose whereabouts remain unconfirmed since his father's killing in the war's opening strikes — said Washington's commitments were ‘utterly worthless’ and warned of ‘even heavier costs’ ahead. Senior military officials echoed the threat of a ‘decisive and devastating response’ if US strikes continue. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
