US Strikes Iran for Ninth Day as Military Death Toll Rises

US forces struck Iran for a ninth consecutive day on Monday as another American service member was confirmed dead and concerns grew over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced a new wave of strikes aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the strategic waterway.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported US missile strikes early on Monday and explosions in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini.

The US military said a service member was killed on Saturday in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian attack drone. It had earlier reported that two service members died in Jordan. The latest casualty brought the number of US military personnel killed since the conflict began to 17, with more than 420 others wounded.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced an attack on “the enemy’s special operations headquarters” in Syria’s Al-Tanf area. Kuwait said a desalination plant was attacked for the second consecutive day, causing a fire.

Brent crude rose 2% to more than $90 a barrel on Monday. President Donald Trump said US forces had “hit them very hard again tonight” in honor of the service members killed since Friday.

(Reuters, bak)