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Middle East crisis live: US launches new round of airstrikes to ‘swiftly punish’ Iran after American troops killed
The US military said it launched new airstrikes against Iran 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 hospitalisation. Speaking to the New York Post , the US president, Donald Trump, described the deaths as a “shame”. “They did it because they don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of the troops. “And it just shows you how bad (the Iranians) are,” he added. Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei , said before the strikes that Washington would pay for “seeking to escalate the conflict”. The US military’s Central Command said the airstrikes began at 6pm ET (10pm GMT) on Saturday at Trump’s direction and were also designed to “further degrade” Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz . An area near Sirik – on the vital energy shipping route – was targeted about 1.30am local time, Iran’s state-run Irna news agency said. A location near Hajiabad in the same southern province of Hormozgan was also targeted, and explosions were heard in the port city of Bandar Abbas , Irna said. An area near Qeshm Island in the strait was also targeted, state-run broadcaster Irib said. In an update posted to social media a few hours ago, Centcom claimed it had struck “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites,” completing its eighth consecutive night of strikes against Iran. The US and Iran have intensified attacks since their framework ceasefire deal signed a month ago fell apart last week, raising the possibility of a return to all-out war. View image in fullscreen People drive past a banner showing a portrait of Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran. Photograph: Vahid Salemi/AP In other key developments: The two US troop deaths on Friday were its first from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war . US defence secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.” Iran appeared to target Saudi Arabia as well as other US Gulf allies and Jordan on Saturday after US attacks on Iranian bridges, power facilities and other infrastructure. Mojtaba Khamenei said US actions had shown that Trump’s signature was “utterly worthless and devoid of credibility”, warning of “even heavier costs and further humiliation” for the US , in a statement carried by the official social media accounts of Iran’s supreme leader and state media. The American deaths brought the number of US service members killed since the war began to 16 , while more than 430 have been injured. Iran’s health ministry said on Saturday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 injured in US strikes on the country over the past three weeks. In Iraq, a base near Irbil of the Kurdistan Freedom party, an Iranian Kurdish dissident group, was struck by a drone early on Sunday, wounding eight of its members, according to a mil
