Jon Gambrell and Toqa Ezzedin
Two US troops have been killed and another is missing after an attack on a base in Jordan, marking the first US troop deaths due to direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war.
They were killed on Friday as the US and partner forces defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks, a US military statement said. Four other service members who were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals were later discharged. The dead have not been publicly identified.
Since the war began, 16 US service members have been killed and over 430 wounded.
Minutes earlier, Iran’s supreme leader had warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the United States 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.” The comments came hours after a negotiator said Tehran was suspending its commitments to the interim deal signed about a month ago.
Tehran’s declarations snapped another fragile thread as the war shows no end in sight. The deal was aimed at permanently ending the fighting. Now Khamenei warns of “lessons” not only from Iran but its armed proxies in the region, calling them the “Axis of Resistance”.
The United States and Iran have been exchanging strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets. Their battle over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the essential waterway that previously carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil. The strikes threaten civilians and services to them, including desalination plants for drinking water, while the global economy is again on alert.
The US Central Command said early Saturday that its seventh straight night of strikes hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.”
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, told state TV that the US has violated its commitments under the deal that was signed about a month ago and now Iran is “no longer implementing them”.
There was no new word on mediation efforts.
The most significant damage from Iranian strikes on Saturday occurred in Kuwait, where a water desalination plant and an oil facility were hit, according to the Kuwait authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Both declined to provide locations.
The strikes injured several people at the oil facility and caused a fire at the desalination plant, forcing several power generation units offline. It was the second attack against a desalination plant in two days in the tiny desert nation that depends on desalination for 90 per cent of its drinking water.
Several firefighters and a worker were injured while battling two other blazes sparked by Iranian strikes, according to the Kuwait Fire Force. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace due to missile threats, and Kuwait Airways said it was rescheduling most flights to and from the capital.
Meanwhile, Iraq said it shot down attack drones over the city of Irbil. Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said the kingdom’s air defence systems had downed Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain throughout the day and in Saudi Arabia in the morning, according to their governments.
The secretary general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, accused Iran of war crimes for strikes on infrastructure and civilian facilities.
US strikes hit infrastructure in Iran
US airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state TV reported. IRNA said the Bonji desalination plant was destroyed, cutting off water supplies to about 10,000 people, and that a desalination plant on strategic Qeshm Island inside the strait was damaged.
Overnight strikes damaged two tunnels and a bridge, disrupting one of the main highways toward Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port that sits near the narrowest part of the strait, according to Iran’s state-run news agency. IRNA said three bridges were hit Saturday, including one on a route to Bandar Abbas.
Iran acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the US airstrikes for the first time Friday when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat.” It did not specify what was hit.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stepped up its warning that countries hosting US forces should be “prepared to receive a corresponding response,” according to Iran’s state TV.
AP
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