US Military Announces Another Death, Launches Airstrikes on Iran Amid Escalating Conflict

The US military announced another death of a service member as it launched more airstrikes at Iran on Sunday in response to the killing of American troops , and Iran fired missiles toward Jordan that risked widening the conflict into neighboring Israel.

The US military said the service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.

Earlier, the military said its strikes targeted Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for Friday’s killing of troops in Jordan. One service member was missing after that attack, and the military’s new statement said “unidentified remains” were found on Sunday and were being examined. Since the war began, 17 US service members have been killed.

Step by step, the US and Iran have returned closer to all-out war as last month’s interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the strait of Hormuz has largely stalled. Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people.

The renewed exchanges of fire, now in their second week, have seen the US target bridges, water desalination plants and electrical facilities in Iran. Tehran has hit US-allied countries throughout the Middle East.

Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain again activated air defenses for incoming Iranian drones and missiles. Israel warned that missiles launched toward neighboring Jordan could cause fire to spill over into Israeli territory for the first time in weeks.

The US military’s Central Command said it hit “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites”. It said the attack was designed to degrade Iran’s ability to control the strait and “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces”, a 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’s atomic energy agency said US strikes targeted the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in the southwest, state television reported.

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the Darkhovin nuclear plant site showed earth clearing but little construction as of 9 July. Iran did not previously announce it as being targeted.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the site, in the “very early stages of construction”, contained no nuclear material when the UN watchdog last visited.

Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest US strikes. Iran has provided no overall information on its materiel losses.

Far from the region, the war’s effects on the prices of fuel and other goods have hit some of the world’s most vulnerable areas hard.