The U.S. military said that it carried out new airstrikes against Iran on Sunday to "swiftly punish" the country's Revolutionary Guard for an attack in Jordan that killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalization.
The strikes were designed to further degrade Iran's ability to restrict the traffic of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said. The waterway accounted for roughly 20% of global oil supplies before the war.
The new strikes came after the U.S. military announced its first troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war, following a drone and missile attack on a base in Jordan on Friday. The dead were not identified, and Central Command wouldn't offer any further details on the deaths.
Since the war began, 16 U.S. service members have been killed and over 430 wounded.An area near Sirik, on the Strait of Hormuz, was targeted around 1:30 a.m. local time, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, which cited local authorities in southern Hormozgan province.
A location near Hajiabad, in the same province, was also targeted, and explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas, according to IRNA. An area near Qeshm Island, inside the strait, was also targeted, according to Iran's state-run broadcaster, IRIB.
In neighboring Iraq, a base of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish dissident group, near Irbil was struck by a drone early Sunday, wounding eight of its members, according to Rebaz Sharifi, a military official with the group.
Residents of Irbil, the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, also heard explosions from air defenses early Sunday.
Irbil has been targeted by drone attacks multiple times over the past four days, which coincided with a visit by new Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to Washington last week and an ongoing escalation between the U.S. and Iran.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but in the past both Iran and Iran-backed Iraqi militias have launched attacks in the Kurdish region, where both U.S. troops and armed Kurdish Iranian dissident groups are present.
Iran's supreme leader warns of 'unforgettable lessons'
Minutes before the U.S. announced the troop deaths earlier Saturday, Iran's supreme leader warned of "unforgettable lessons" if the U.S. keeps attacking the Islamic Republic.
The remarks read out on state TV and attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, still unseen since the war began, also called President Donald Trump's signature "worthless and invalid." An Iranian negotiator said Tehran was suspending its commitments to the interim deal signed about a month ago and aimed at permanently ending the fighting.
Tehran's declarations snapped another fragile thread as the war shows no end in sight. Now Khamenei warns of "lessons" not only from Iran but also its armed proxies in the region, calling them the "Axis of Resistance." The U.S. issued a global travel alert over the rising tensions.
The battle has focused on control of the Strait of Hormuz. The widening strikes now threaten civilians and infrastructure, including desalination plants for drinking water, while the global economy again is on alert.
The U.S. has violated its commitments under the deal and now Iran is "no longer implementing them," Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, told state TV.
There was no new word on mediation efforts.
