DUBAI, JUL 19 (AP): The US military launched airstrikes Sunday targeting Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for the killing of American troops in Jordan, further widening the exchange of fire between them as an interim deal seeking an end to their war has collapsed.
The strikes are part of a weeklong campaign that began with a struggle over control of the Strait of Hormuz and has seen Iran strike US-allied countries across the Middle East.
The US has targeted bridges, electrical facilities and other targets in Iran, and Tehran has retaliated by hitting power and desalination plants in Kuwait, threatening daily life in that small, oil-rich desert nation. Iran also has stepped up its threats to further expand the strikes, drawing a warning overnight from the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait and Bahrain again activated air defences Sunday morning as they warned of incoming Iranian drones and missiles.
The latest US strikes come after troops were killed: The US military’s Central Command in its statement also said it hit “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites.” It said the attack was designed to degrade Iran’s ability to control the Strait of Hormuz and “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces,” a key power base in Iran’s theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal. Footage released 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.
An Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalisation, the US military said on Saturday. Since the war began, 16 US service members have been killed and over 430 wounded. Iranian authorities said on Sunday that at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest US strikes.
Iran has provided no overall information on its materiel losses in the American campaign, which is now in its eighth day as the nations vie over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes in peacetime.
Iran’s atomic energy agency said that US strikes early on Sunday morning targeted a construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in southwest Iran, according to Iranian state television. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the planned site of the Darkhovin Nuclear Power Plant show earth clearing but very little construction having taken place there as of July 9. There is no radiological material known to be at the site, which Iran had not previously announced as targeted throughout the war.
Iran’s IRGC claims it shot down US’ MQ-9 drone in Ahvaz: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday that it has intercepted and shot down the United States’ MQ-9 drone in Iran’s Ahvaz, local media reported.
The advanced air defence system operated by the IRGC Aerospace Force under the command of Iran’s integrated air defence network shot down the MQ 9 drone, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said. The announcement comes as Iran continues to carry out retaliatory action against the US military targets in West Asia.
Meanwhile, Commander of the central Khatam al Anbiya headquarters, Major General Ali Abdollahi, has warned that Iran’s Armed Forces will give a devastating response to the US for any act of aggression, Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said.
Abdollahi said that Iran will give a decisive and destructive response to any act of greed, bullying, expansionism, or brutality, and it will face costs “heavier than those of the second and third imposed wars.”
He termed Iran’s defensive power as a guarantee of nationwide security and a foundation allowing officials to work for the welfare of the people of Iran, IRNA reported.
Abdollahi said that the US, after facing repeated military failures, is trying to create division between the people and officials. He described Iran’s internal unity as the key to defeating this “satanic scheme.”
On Saturday, Iran’s IRGC said that it has attacked a US base in Jordan, targeted a fuel supply dock in Kuwait and destroyed a data centre in Bahrain, state media reported.
The Sahargah Corps Aerospace Force of the IRGC has conducted attacks on fighter jet shelters and a large parking ramp at the American base in Al-Azraq, Jordan, news agency Sepah reported. It said that the attack destroyed at least two fighter jets and three American aircraft, and caused major damage to some of them with a simultaneous missile and drone attack.
In a different statement, the IRGC claimed that on Friday night, its Navy targeted the US fleet’s fuel supply dock in Bandar Al-Ahmadi, Kuwait, and the warplane gathering place in Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa with its drone and missile strikes, destroying an intelligence data centre in Bahrain named Batelco.
According to the statement, IRGC Navy fighters also destroyed a US signals and communications centre in Kuwait.
Late on Friday, the US CENTCOM said in a post on social media platform X that US forces ended the seventh consecutive night of strikes against Iran.
“US forces ended the seventh consecutive night of strikes against Iran on July 17 at 9:30 pm ET. US Central Command (CENTCOM) hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities. US forces employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets,” CENTCOM noted on X.
According to Iran’s state media, three people were killed and eight others injured in the latest US strikes.
