US hits Iran for 8th consecutive night; Tehran returns fire on Gulf bases
US Central Command says new strikes on Iran are designed to further degrade Iran's ability to choke the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States military has said it launched new strikes on Iran to “swiftly punish” the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after an attack that killed two US service members and left one missing.
Iranian media reported on Sunday an area near Sirik in Iran’s Hormozgan province as well as Qeshm Island were hit on the eighth consecutive night of US air attacks on Iran.
Tasnim news agency also said the US military targeted a location near Shadegan, in Khuzestan province.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
In a post on social media, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the US military launched new strikes “designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”.
The post added that the strikes were also in retaliation for Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks on a US base in Jordan on Friday that killed the two US service members. Four also required hospitalisation after the attack.
CENTCOM later said its strikes targeted “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites”.
Since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran in late February, 16 US service members have been killed and more than 430 wounded.
Tasnim said the Iranian army targeted US military assets in two bases in Kuwait.
A statement from Iran’s military said, “In response to the repeated aggressions of the enemy”, the army targeted a US “ammunition depot at Al-Adiri camp and the Patriot radar and air radar” at the Ali Al Salem base in Kuwait.
Before the latest US strikes began, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the US continued its attacks.
In recent days, US strikes have widened to include civilian infrastructure, including bridges and desalination plants for drinking water.
State-run news agency IRNA said the Bonji desalination plant was destroyed, cutting off water supplies to about 10,000 people, and a desalination plant on strategic Qeshm Island inside the Strait of Hormuz was damaged.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state television the US is violating terms of an interim deal signed by the two sides last month and “no longer implementing them”.
Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes in the past three weeks.
Late on Saturday, the Iranian embassy in India named two girls – Sogand Dardmand and Fatemeh Zahra Akbari – who were among seven killed in a US strike on Bandar Khamir in southern Iran, which took place on Thursday.
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said that the last eight nights of US strikes on Iran have caused “anger” and “frustration” among the populace.
“People don’t really know whether they are going to see the continuation of this confrontation, or how long it’s going to take, and also if there is a possibility for a diplomatic settlement to resolve all these complexities and find a long-lasting solution,” he said.