The US military says a service member was killed after an Iranian attack in northern Iraq on Saturday, a day after an attack on a base in Jordan killed two US soldiers and left another missing.
US Central Command (Centcom) said the individual was killed during “a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance” from a downed Iranian attack drone, which also wounded a second service member.
In its update, Centcom said it had found “unidentified remains” after a search of the location of Friday’s attack in Jordan. “An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing,” it added.
It comes as the US and Iran exchanged strikes for an eighth day of escalating attacks.
Both sides have been accused of striking critical infrastructure in recent days. Meanwhile, Washington has reimposed its blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and targeted US allies in the region, as a preliminary ceasefire collapsed less than a month after it began.
The US military said its latest attacks had been designed to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping” in the strait, and to “swiftly punish” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces it said were responsible for the attack in Jordan.
Verified footage from inside the Jordanian facility showed at least two impacts and an explosion.
The US death toll in the conflict has now reached 17, after an American Navy pilot who went missing earlier this month was declared dead.
In Iran, at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 injured in US strikes over the past three weeks, the country’s health ministry has said.
As attacks continued on Sunday, Iranian media reported that an under-construction nuclear power plant in the south-western city of Darkhoveyn had been struck overnight, as well as Qeshm Island.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog called for restraint, while noting that the site was “in the very early stages” and contained no nuclear material during its last visit.
Three Iranian missiles were later shot down by Jordan’s military and a fourth fell in a remote area, Jordan’s state news agency reported. It followed a US warning that the port of Aqaba could be targeted.
Jordan summoned Iran’s charges d’affaires in Amman to demand an immediate end to what the foreign ministry called “unjustified and blatant Iranian attacks”, insisting that its security was “a red line that cannot be crossed”.
Israel’s military meanwhile said that “several interceptors were launched toward missile debris in order to prevent debris impact within Israeli territory” after projectiles were launched towards Jordan.
It said “interceptor fragments” were subsequently identified near the southern city of Eilat, near the countries’ shared border, with no damage or injuries reported.
Separately, the IRGC said two vessels had ignored Iranian warnings not to transit the Strait of Hormuz and were consequently involved in “an accident”.
It warned that all vessels “influenced” by the US and which used “unsafe routes” would “certainly face accidents”.
In Kuwait, local officials said an electricity and water plant struck on Saturday had been hit again, resulting in a fire.
The Gulf Cooperation Council – an alliance including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – had accused Tehran of targeting civilian infrastructure after the first strike, calling it a violation of international law.
Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk417jp83po
