The United States conducted a new round of airstrikes early on Monday targeting Iran after announcing the death of another American service member.
Iran responded by launching an attack targeting Bahrain, the home of the US Navy’s fifth fleet.
The latest attacks again showed how the US and Iran have inched closer to all-out war as last month’s interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled.
Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people, while benchmark Brent crude rose Monday above 90 dollars (£67) a barrel, further fuelling a global energy crisis sparked by the conflict.
The US military said the service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.
“We hit them very hard again tonight,” US President Donald Trump said, adding “we did that in honour of the” soldiers killed.
The US military’s Central Command announced a new round of strikes early on Monday, now into their ninth straight night. Central Command said it targeted “Iranian military command centres, air defence and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks”.
There was no immediate word from Iran on any casualties or damage from the attacks. Iranian state media reported explosions being heard in southern and north-western Iran.
As the strikes began, a ship caught fire early on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz near the coastline of Oman, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said.
It was unclear what sparked the blaze off Oman, which has been a route the US military has encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iran’s control. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard later claimed it was targeting tankers in the strait.
Tehran has retaliated by hitting US-allied countries throughout the Middle East.
Mr 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, which saw one-fifth of traded global oil supplies transit before the war.
The US in the past week reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil. The military on Saturday said it had redirected six ships and disabled one since then.
https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/2078982210611192290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The halfway point has passed in the 60 days the deal set out to negotiate the permanent end of the war and other issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the US is still open to negotiating with Iran but that “it has to be real”.
“We’re going to continue to respond. If the door opens to diplomacy — if the guys that want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of that system, or take control of the negotiations — that’ll be a very positive development,” Rubio said. “That’s not where we are tonight, unfortunately.”
Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest rounds of US strikes. Since the war began on February 28, 17 US service members have been killed.
