US hits Iran anew after two troops slain in Jordan

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 20 ------ The United States launched new airstrikes to "punish" Iran after reporting the first US military deaths since renewing its hostilities with the Islamic republic. Iran's supreme leader vowed to teach the Americans "unforgettable lessons" as it struck infrastructure around the Gulf in retaliation for a week of intensifying US attacks, which Iran said had hit an airport, railway station and bridges.

A month after the foes signed a now-abandoned preliminary deal aimed at ending their war, Iran hit an oil facility in Kuwait as well as a power and water plant, authorities in the Gulf state said, while in Bahrain the army said air defenses repelled a wave of Iranian attacks.

Tehran also launched fresh strikes in Jordan, where the US military's Central Command (Centcom) said two service members were killed Friday as they "defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks." It said another service member was still missing in action. That brought to 16 the confirmed number of US military fatalities since the conflict began on Feb. 28.

Hours later, Centcom announced an eighth consecutive night of strikes, which it said on X "are designed to further degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night."

The Iranian news agencies Fars and Tasnim simultaneously reported US attacks on Sirik, a port located on the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran.

Incite war

Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who took over from his father after he was killed in the opening salvo of US-Israeli strikes, said the ongoing attacks on his country "once again demonstrated to everyone the worthlessness of the American president's signature." "Now that the American enemy seeks to incite war and bear its most serious consequences, it should know that the dear Iranian nation and the axis of resistance have unforgettable lessons to offer it," he added, in a statement carried by state TV.

Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Khamenei, warned that Tehran would resume "full-scale offensive operations" if US strikes continued in the coming days. "Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses," the general said, according to state media.

The latest bout of violence was sparked by Iranian attacks on ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital transport lane for Gulf energy exports that Tehran seeks to control. Iran closed the strait after the war broke out, and control over the route has become leverage in negotiations with Washington, which recently reimposed its own blockade of Iran's ports.

Source: manilatimes.net