Opening summary: US says it is launching ninth night of strikes on Iran<\/p>\n
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of developments in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The US military says it is beginning its ninth night of strikes on Iran, with an interim deal aimed at ending the war appearing to have all but collapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the strait of Hormuz,\u201d US Central Command said on X on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The attacks on Sunday come after a US service member was killed in Iraq the previous day during a \u201ccontrolled detonation\u201d of a downed Iranian drone, according to the US military, and two American troops were killed in Jordan on Friday.<\/p>\n
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An Iranian bridge linking Bandar Abbas and Kehuristan is seen on Sunday in Iran\u2019s Hormozgan province after US strikes. Iranian authorities said the US carried out attacks on 95 locations across 12 cities over the previous 10 days. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The US military said carried out strikes against Iran on Saturday to \u201cswiftly punish\u201d the country\u2019s Revolutionary Guard for the Jordan attack, while Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the US would pay for trying to \u201cescalate\u201d the conflict.<\/p>\n
In other key developments:<\/p>\n
Bahrain\u2019s interior ministry said overnight to Monday that its air raid sirens had sounded. \u201cCitizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,\u201d it said on X. Bahrain, host of the US Fifth Fleet, has been targeted by Iranian strikes in recent days.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards said Monday it launched a \u201csurprise attack\u201d on an enemy command centre in Syria, in a statement reported by state news agency Irna. They attack was \u201cin revenge for the blood of martyred soldiers of Iranshahr\u201d, a city in south-east Iran, Irna said on Telegram.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kuwait and Bahrain have borne the brunt of attacks by Iran on its Gulf neighbours since hostilities resumed this month despite a ceasefire and memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran.<\/p>\n
Jordan also reported intercepting missiles, a day after the US military said the two service members were killed there Friday and another had gone missing in action as they \u201cdefended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n
US Central Command\u2019s announcement that a service member died in northern Iraq during the controlled detonation of an unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone brought to 17 the confirmed number of American military fatalities since the war began. Iran\u2019s health ministry said on \u200cSaturday that 50 people had been killed \u200band more than 500 injured in US strikes \u200bon the country over the past three weeks.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a020.11 EDT<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n US says it has completed latest wave of attacks<\/p>\n The US military\u2019s Central Command says it has \u201csuccessfully completed\u201d its ninth consecutive evening of strikes against Iran.<\/p>\n It said in a post on X:<\/p>\n double quotation markCENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran\u2019s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n The U.S. military is holding Iran accountable at the Commander in Chief\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Iran says it targeted US aircraft in Jordan and stopped two tankers in Hormuz strait<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard says it has targeted US aircraft in Jordan\u2019s Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n It also claimed on Monday that two oil tankers \u2060had exploded \u2060and been immobilised \u200bafter attempting to transit what it \u2060described as an unsafe southern route through the strait \u2060of Hormuz, alleging they had been \u200bencouraged \u200cby the \u200cUS military to use the passage.<\/p>\n The statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gave no details on the vessels\u2019 names, flags, crews or any \u200ccasualties, Reuters reports, saying it could not immediately verify the incident.<\/p>\n The Guard said the strait would remain unsafe \u200bas long as what it called US \u201caggression\u201d in the region continued, warning that \u201cthis passage will \u2060not be safe for the \u200btransit \u200bof petrochemical products, \u200bnor even a single \u200bdrop \u200cof oil \u200band \u200bgas\u201d.<\/p>\n It also warned the US military to prepare for a \u201cpunitive operation\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a021.58 EDT<\/p>\n Vessel on fire in strait of Hormuz, maritime agency says<\/p>\n A vessel is on fire in the Hormuz strait off Oman, the UK\u2019s Maritime Trade Operations agency is saying, citing military authorities.<\/p>\n It said it received a report of an incident eight nautical miles north-west of Kumzar in Oman\u2019s far north \u2013 on the southern edge of the strait.<\/p>\n The cause of the fire had not yet been verified, the agency posted on X<\/a>, advising vessels to \u201ctransit with caution\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a021.23 EDT<\/p>\n Trump says US hitting Iran ‘very hard’<\/p>\n More now on Donald Trump saying the latest US strikes on Iran<\/a> were being carried out in honour of US service members killed in recent days.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honour of the probably three, it\u2019s probably three great patriots,\u201d Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington after the World Cup final.<\/p>\n The US president said \u201cwe feel very badly\u201d when asked about the military fatalities, adding that those who died were fighting so that \u201cIran cannot have a nuclear weapon\u201d, in comments cited by the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n As mentioned, one American service member was killed in Iraq during the \u201ccontrolled detonation\u201d of a downed Iranian drone on Saturday and two were killed in Jordan in an Iranian attack on Friday, according to the US military.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Trump says US hitting Iran ‘very hard’<\/p>\n Donald Trump is saying the US is hitting Iran<\/a> \u201cvery hard\u201d to honour the American service members who have been killed in recent days.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll bring you more on his reported comments soon.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a020.48 EDT<\/p>\n Kuwait\u2019s army said earlier that its air defences were responding to hostile drones from Iran<\/a>, while in Bahrain the interior ministry also said earlier that air raid sirens had sounded there.<\/p>\n Tehran has previously retaliated against US attacks with strikes at American-allied countries around the Middle East.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a020.46 EDT<\/p>\n The Israeli military says sirens sounded a short time ago in the southern Israeli areas of Kfar Aza and Sa\u2019ad but it had been determined to be from a \u201cfalse identification\u201d.<\/p>\n The IDF posted the announcement on Telegram.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The \u2060United Kingdom Maritime \u2060Trade Operations \u2060agency said \u200bit had received \u2060a report of \u2060an \u200bincident \u200c8 nautical miles (14.8 \u200ckm) north-west \u200cof Oman\u2019s Kumzar, where information from a verified \u200csource indicated that \u200ba vessel was on fire.<\/p>\n UKMTO, cited by Reuters, \u2060said the cause \u200bof the \u200bfire \u200bhad \u200bnot \u200cbeen \u200bverified.<\/p>\n