The US military completed its 10th consecutive night of airstrikes on Iran late Monday, US Central Command said, hitting military command centers, missile and drone launch sites, maritime capabilities and air defense systems in an ongoing effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.
CENTCOM said the roughly five-hour operation was designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten shipping through the strait. The strikes followed the death of another American service member, bringing the US military death toll since fighting resumed to 17 since the war began on February 28. Iranian authorities said at least 50 people were killed and 517 wounded in the most recent rounds of US strikes, with Iranian state media reporting explosions in Sirik, Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Shiraz and Isfahan.
Iran responded with strikes on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, and a tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz off Oman’s coast, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency. Yemen’s Houthi movement separately announced it would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front in the widening conflict and adding fresh risk to regional energy supplies.
Amid the escalation, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had received a proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire aimed at reviving last month’s collapsed interim agreement. President Trump, ahead of the latest strikes, warned on social media that Iran would pay many times over for any American soldier killed, and was scheduled to attend a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday evening to receive the remains of a service member. Trump has also threatened to expand strikes to Iran’s energy plants and bridges, a prospect legal experts have warned could raise war crimes concerns under the Geneva Conventions’ protections for civilian infrastructure.
