The United States military concluded its ninth straight day of operations against Iranian targets late Sunday, hours after an American service member was killed in northern Iraq. The strikes, which U.S. Central Command said ended at 10 p.m. EDT, focused on degrading Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping.
Centcom announced on social media platform X that the strikes hit Iranian military command centers, air defense systems, coastal surveillance stations, maritime assets, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks. The goal, according to the command, was to “further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
The latest American casualty occurred Saturday during a “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone in northern Iraq, Centcom reported. A second service member sustained minor injuries and was receiving medical treatment as of Sunday.
This death brings the total number of U.S. service members killed since the U.S. and Israel launched hostilities with Iran on February 28 to 17. It follows an Iranian attack in Jordan that killed two American troops just a day earlier. Two U.S. troops were killed in Jordan as Trump expanded Iran strikes.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the latest wave of bombings was carried out “in honor” of the three recently killed service members. “We hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honor of the probably three,” Trump told reporters.
The escalation marks a collapse of the ceasefire both sides agreed to last month. The renewed cycle of violence began when Iranian forces attacked multiple commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a U.S. response that has now stretched into its second week. The U.S. has expanded strikes to ports, bridges, and energy sites in an effort to pressure the Iranian regime.
Early Monday, the Bahrain Defense Force’s General Command reported that Iran launched another round of attacks against the kingdom, further widening the conflict in the Persian Gulf. The Biden administration has not commented on whether the U.S. will support Bahrain directly.
The sustained campaign has drawn attention to the mounting toll on American forces. Senator Mark Warner recently called the relatively low number of U.S. deaths “remarkable,” even as fatalities reached 16. Warner said the low U.S. death toll in the Iran conflict was 'remarkable' as fatalities hit 16. A recent poll found that 46% of Americans expect the conflict to last another year or more.
