The United States carried out another round of strikes against Iran on Sunday night, marking the ninth straight day of military action as the conflict continues to escalate across the Middle East.
According to U.S. Central Command (Centcom), the strikes ended around 10 p.m. EDT Sunday. The military said it targeted Iranian command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, missile and drone launch locations, maritime capabilities, and communications networks.
Centcom said the goal was to "further diminish Iran's ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz."
The latest strikes came just one day after an American service member was killed in northern Iraq while handling unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone. Centcom said the explosion happened during a controlled detonation. Another service member suffered what officials described as a minor injury and was receiving medical treatment.
The death brings the number of American service members killed since the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran on Feb. 28 to 17.
The weekend was especially deadly for U.S. forces. On Saturday, Centcom said an Iranian attack in Jordan killed two American service members. Following Sunday's strikes, President Donald Trump said the latest operation was carried out in their honor.
"We hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honor of the probably three," Trump told reporters.
The fighting has intensified over the past two weeks, effectively ending the ceasefire the United States and Iran agreed to last month. The latest round of violence began after Iranian forces targeted multiple commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
The conflict showed no signs of easing early Monday. Bahrain's Defense Force General Command announced that Iran had launched another round of attacks against the Gulf nation, adding to fears that the fighting could spread even further across the region.
