Middle East crisis live: US launches new round of airstrikes to ‘swiftly punish’ Iran after American troops killed
Key events
The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, has written an interesting analysis piece about why Iran has more than enough capability to inflict damage despite the US being the superior military power. Here is an extract from his story, which was published last Friday:
A frustrated US is exploring how to bend Iran to its will, after Trump described the country’s leaders as “scum” and “sick people” at this month’s Nato summit, though it is not obvious how that can be done without a substantial ground campaign, for which the US is not prepared for, nor has the appetite for.
Military escalation was considered at a White House Situation Room meeting on Tuesday, followed by leaks that the options considered included bombing another deep-lying nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain – which would have no effect on the now critical Hormuz dynamic – or a seizure of the strategic Kharg Island, through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports would flow if there was no US blockade.
It is perfectly possible for the US to capture Kharg or any other small location on the ground, but the challenge would be holding on, as it would be inevitably targeted by Iranian missiles and drones. Meanwhile, continued US bombing will further reduce stockpiles of hard-to-make air defence interceptors, depleted by a half, and expensive missiles, down by a quarter to a third, based on estimates from the Center for Strategic and International Studies thinktank.
Bahrain’s interior ministry has urged residents to head to the nearest safe place of shelter as sirens sounded across the country. We’ll bring you more as it comes in.
The US president, Donald Trump, held a brief phone call with NewsNation in which he talked about the Iranian attack on Jordan on Friday that killed two American service members.
Trump said the troops died “in service of our country” and stated again that the war on Iran was launched in order to never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Asked about Iran’s assertion that it was no longer honouring the memorandum of understanding, Trump replied: “I couldn’t care less.”
Trump angrily declared the ceasefire “over” earlier this month but in reality he has very little leverage over Tehran as it can still assert control over the strait of Hormuz and thereby effect global energy prices, a politically sensitive topic for the president ahead of the US midterms.
And Iran could expand the conflict further with help from its regional allies. Reuters reported on Thursday that Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthis to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the US strikes Iranian power infrastructure, which would wreak havoc on the world economy.
Iran could also inflict severe damage on US allied-Gulf countries if American forces decide to escalate the war, such as through sustained and widespread attacks on desalination plants across the region, which would have a devastating civilian cost.
Tehran has already retaliated to US attacks by hitting power and desalination plants in Kuwait, threatening daily life in the small country which relies on desalinated water for about 90% of its drinking water. But so far these attacks have been relatively limited in scope.
Kuwait says it is responding to Iranian missile and drone attacks
In a post to X about an hour ago, Kuwait’s army said it was dealing with hostile missile and drone attacks, following what it described as “Iranian aggression”.
The statement said that any explosions that are heard would likely be the sound of air defence systems intercepting the hostile attacks.
The Iranian army said earlier that it targeted two US bases in Kuwait with drones, hitting an ammunition depot at camp Buehring (formerly camp Udairi) and radar and air surveillance systems at the Ali Al Salem air base, in retaliation for US strikes on Iran overnight. It was not immediately clear whether the Iranian attacks were successful or intercepted.
US launches new round of strikes to ‘punish’ Iran after two US troops killed in Iranian attack
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.
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 military official with the group.
-
The most significant damage from Iranian strikes on Saturday occurred in Kuwait, where a water desalination plant and an oil facility were hit, according to the Kuwait authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. It was the second attack against a desalination plant in two days in the tiny nation that depends on desalination for 90% of its drinking water.
