Photo credit: the Boston globe
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 crossfire between the nations as they fight over the Strait of Hormuz.
The Associated Press reports that the strikes, now part of a weeklong campaign that has seen Iran strike US – aliied countries across the Middle East, come as an interim deal seeking to find an end to the Iran war has collapsed.
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 stepped up its threats to further expand the strikes, drawing a warning overnight from the United Arab Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The US military’s Central Command, in its statement, also said it hit “Iranian military coastal survellance and air defence facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites.” It also said for the first time it specifically targeted the Guard, 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.
Iran has provided no overall information on its material losses in the American campaign, which is now in its eighth day as the nations vie for 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.
An Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed two American service members, left one missing, and four requiring hospitalization, the US military said.
Since the war began, 16 US service members have been killed and 430 wounded.
Iranian authorities said Saturday that at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in the latest US strikes.
Nearly every Gulf Arab state has been targeted by Iran for retaliatory strikes, with a missile alert sounding Saturday in Saudi Arabia. However, the United arab Emirates has yet to be targeted.
The United States President Donald Trump has threatened to target Iran’s power stations and bridges to try to compel Tehran to loosen its hold on the Strait of Hormuz. Recent attacks suggest the US military is carrying out that plan, beginning with the coastal areas of Iran on the Strait.
