The US military said Saturday it carried out new airstrikes on Iran to “quickly punish” the country’s Revolutionary Guards for an attack in Jordan that left two US troops dead, another missing and four requiring hospitalization.
US Central Command said the strikes were aimed at further weakening Iran’s ability to restrict the movement of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, the waterway accounted for approximately 20% of the world’s oil supply.
The dead have not been identified. Since the start of the war, 16 US military personnel have been killed and more than 430 wounded.
Minutes before the announcement, Iran’s supreme leader warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the US continues to attack the Islamic Republic.
Remarks read on state television and attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen since the start of the war, also called President Donald Trump’s signature “useless and invalid.” An Iranian negotiator said Tehran was suspending its obligations under an interim agreement signed about a month ago aimed at a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Tehran’s statements severed another fragile thread as the war shows no end in sight. Now Khamenei is warning of “lessons” not only from Iran, but also from its armed proxies in the region, calling them the “Axis of Resistance.” The US has issued a global travel warning due to rising tensions.
The battle centered on control of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that previously transported a fifth of the world’s crude oil. The expanding strikes now threaten civilians and infrastructure, including desalination plants for drinking water, while the global economy is once again on alert.
The United States has violated its obligations under the agreement and Iran is now “no longer complying with them,” Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, told state television.
There were no new words about mediation efforts.
American soldiers face growing risks
The previous reported death of a US military member was that of a helicopter pilot who crashed in the Arabian Sea earlier this month. Early in the war, an Iranian drone strike on a command center in Kuwait killed six soldiers. One soldier has died after an attack on a base in Saudi Arabia. Six people were killed when a tanker plane crashed in Iraq.
On Saturday, the most significant damage from the Iranian strikes occurred in Kuwait, where a desalination plant and an oil refinery were damaged, according to Kuwaiti authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Both declined to reveal their location.
It was the second attack on a desalination plant in two days in the tiny desert state, which depends on desalination for 90% of its drinking water. The strikes injured several people at the refinery and ignited a fire at a desalination plant, knocking out several power units.
Several firefighters and a worker were injured while fighting two more fires sparked by Iranian strikes, Kuwait’s fire service said. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace due to the missile threat, and Kuwait Airways said it was moving most flights in and out of the capital.
Meanwhile, Iraq said it had shot down attack drones over the city of Erbil. Jordan’s state news agency Petra reported that the kingdom’s air defense systems shot down Iranian missiles and air sirens sounded several times in Bahrain during the day and in Saudi Arabia in the morning, according to their governments.
Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Jassem Mohamed al-Budaiwi accused Iran of war crimes for attacks on infrastructure and civilian targets.
US strikes on infrastructure in Iran
U.S. Central Command said early Saturday that for the seventh night in a row, strikes targeted “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage sites and maritime assets.”
US airstrikes hit electricity and desalination plants in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state television reported. State news agency IRNA reported that the Bonji desalination plant was destroyed, cutting off water supplies to about 10,000 people, and the desalination plant on the strategic Qeshm island inside the strait was damaged.
The overnight strikes damaged two tunnels and a bridge, disrupting the main highway leading to Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port near the narrowest part of the strait, IRNA said. The report said three bridges were damaged on Saturday, including one on the way to Bandar Abbas.
Iran acknowledged for the first time “attacks on energy infrastructure” during US airstrikes on Friday as its Energy Ministry urged people to use less electricity in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat.” What exactly was hit is not specified.
Iranian officials have said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes over the past three weeks, including eight people killed in Friday’s bridge strike.
Iran and the US are fighting over the Strait of Hormuz
Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping after the war began with US and Israeli strikes on February 28. This gave Tehran significant leverage in the negotiations.
Iran has said the strait should be under its sole control and that ships must pay fees to Tehran, even though the world has for decades considered it an international waterway. Iran has fired on ships in recent days and transit has fallen to a three-week low, according to international shipping tracker.
Trump has renewed threats to strike Iranian power plants and bridges in an attempt to force Tehran to loosen its grip. Last week the US renewed a naval blockade of Iranian ports to stop crude oil shipments, and on Saturday the military said it had since redirected five ships and disabled one.
Before the war began, the United States negotiated with Iran over its nuclear program. Trump now faces political pressure to end the war and avoid the protracted conflict in the Middle East that he opposed.