United States President Donald Trump has said the latest wave of American airstrikes against Iran was carried out in honour of American service members killed in the conflict, as the United States entered its ninth consecutive night of bombing Iranian targets following the collapse of a preliminary ceasefire.
“We hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honour of the, probably three, it’s probably three great patriots,” Trump told reporters on Sunday night as he returned to Washington after attending the FIFA World Cup final.
The United States military’s Central Command announced a new round of strikes targeting Iranian military command centres, air defence and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and communications networks.
A third United States service member was confirmed killed during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The United States military also confirmed it had recovered unidentified remains at a base in Jordan where two other military personnel were killed in an Iranian strike on Friday.
Total American military deaths in the conflict with Iran have now risen to 17 since operations began on 28 February.
Iran retaliated by launching attacks targeting Bahrain, home of the United States Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait, as both sides continued to strike civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people.
A ship also caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz near the Omani coastline in the early hours of Monday morning, according to the British military.
Oil prices rose approximately three per cent on Sunday, with Brent crude climbing above $90 a barrel, as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply flows, continued to decline.
Iran says at least 3,000 of its nationals, many of them civilians, have been killed since the United States and Israel began the conflict on 28 February.
The United States military has said it has not yet completed a full review of a strike on a girls’ school that killed 168 children and 14 adults.
