US ‘hit Iran very hard’, Trump says, as both inch closer to all-out war

The United States began a new round of air strikes early on Monday targeting Iran after announcing the death of another American service member, and Iran fired missiles towards Jordan that risked widening the conflict into neighbouring Israel. Step by step, 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. 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, and we did that in honour of the, probably three, it’s probably three great patriots,” Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington following the World Cup final. Trump said “we feel very badly,” when asked about the military fatalities, adding that those who died were fighting so that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon”. Earlier, the military said its strikes targeted Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for Friday’s killing of troops in Jordan. One service member was missing after that attack, and the military’s new statement said “unidentified remains” were found on Sunday and were being examined. Since the war began, 17 US service members have been killed. The renewed exchanges of fire, now in their second week, have seen the US target bridges and electrical facilities in Iran. The US military’s Central Command announced a new round of strikes early Monday, now into their ninth straight night. “The strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” Central Command said in a statement. As the strikes began, a ship caught fire early on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz near the coastline of Oman, the British military 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 hits US allies Tehran has retaliated by hitting US-allied countries throughout the Middle East. Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait again activated air defences for incoming Iranian drones and missiles. Early on Monday, the US Embassy in Bahrain issued a warning saying “Iran may seek to target unspecified locations in central Manama”, the capital, without elaborating. Israel warned that missiles launched towards neighbouring Jordan could cause fire to spill over into Israeli territory for the first time in weeks. Footage released on Sunday by the US military appeared to show strikes carried out by fighter jets and by Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the sea. One target site appeared to be in a valley of a mountainous region. The Guard often has missile bases and other military equipment tucked into mountain ranges. Iran’s atomic energy agency said US strikes targeted the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in the southwest, state television reported. Satellite images from Planet Labs of the Darkhovin nuclear plant site showed earth clearing but little construction as of July 9. Iran did not previously announce it as being targeted. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the site, in the “very early stages of construction”, contained no nuclear material when the UN watchdog last visited. Jordan’s military said it shot down several Iranian missiles. The country hosts major US bases and relies on US air-defence systems. The missiles did not cause casualties or damage, according to Jordan’s military. Jordan later summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires to protest, state-run television reported. Israel’s military said Iranian missiles launched towards the Jordanian port city of Aqaba just across the border could spill over, warning Israelis to expect the first air-raid sirens in weeks. Eilat, the Israeli city that neighbours Aqaba, cited security officials as saying two interceptors were launched from its outskirts to prevent the fall of debris. During the latest fighting, Iran has focused attacks on US-allied Arab states rather than Israel, which launched the war with the US on February 28. “We are prepared to immediately resume combat,” the Israeli military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said. Kuwait said one of its power and water desalination plants was attacked for the second time in two days, causing fires. Its Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said the power grid remains stable. In Kuwait, about 90 per cent of drinking water comes from desalination. The secretary general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, has accused Iran of war crimes for strikes on infrastructure and civilian facilities. International humanitarian law generally protects civilian infrastructure such as bridges and power plants from attack, but such sites can lose protections if used for military purposes. In such cases, attacks must be proportionate and minimise civilian harm. Breaking stranglehold 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 global oil supplies transit before the war. Recent attacks suggest the US military is carrying out that plan. 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. A maritime organisation overseen by the US Navy said on Sunday that the threat to mariners was severe after previous Iranian attacks, “with deliberate hostile action considered highly likely”. It said traffic remained low, with eight transits on Saturday and three on Friday. The daily average before the war was almost 140. Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a statement on Saturday, warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the US kept attacking the Islamic Republic. An Iranian negotiator said Tehran was suspending its commitments to the interim deal and accused the US of violating it. 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. Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people had been killed and 517 wounded in the latest US strikes. Iran has provided no overall information on its materiel losses. Far from the region, the war’s effects on the prices of fuel and other goods have hit some of the world’s most vulnerable areas hard. Oil climbed to the highest level in more than a month while Asian equities fell, compounding a technology-led sell-off that had already rattled markets. Brent rose as much as 3.8 per cent to over US$91 a barrel, the highest level since June. “The dynamic is likely to be acutely felt in Asian markets today,” Kyle Rodda, a senior analyst at Capital.com, wrote in a note to clients. “Another potential jump in crude prices risks economic activity in the energy insecure region” while the drop in semiconductor stocks is “fuelling a wholesale deleveraging across the world,” he wrote. Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg