The United States military on Sunday launched fresh airstrikes targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guard to "swiftly punish" the country following a deadly attack in Jordan that killed two American service members, left one missing, and hospitalized four others. According to U.S. Central Command, these latest strikes are designed to further degrade Tehran's capability to restrict the movement of oil tankers through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that handled approximately 20% of the world's oil supply before the outbreak of the war.
Local authorities in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, cited by the state-run IRNA news agency, reported that the U.S. strikes hit an area near Sirik on the Strait of Hormuz at around 1:30 a.m. local time. The escalation comes as the total U.S. military casualties since the start of the conflict have reached 16 service members killed and more than 430 wounded.
Shortly before the U.S. announced the latest troop casualties on Saturday, Iran's supreme leader issued a stern warning of "unforgettable lessons" if American forces continue their military campaign against the Islamic Republic. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—depicted in downtown Tehran murals alongside current and past leaders, including the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani—warned of retaliatory actions not only from Iran itself but also from its allied regional proxies, collectively known as the "Axis of Resistance." In response to the soaring regional tensions, the U.S. government has issued a global travel alert.
The widening conflict, which centers on control of the Strait of Hormuz, has increasingly threatened civilian populations and critical infrastructure, including vital drinking water facilities. On Saturday, the most severe damage from Iranian retaliatory strikes occurred in Kuwait. According to Kuwaiti authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, an oil facility and a water desalination plant were hit, though officials declined to disclose their exact locations. This marked the second strike against a desalination plant in two days in Kuwait, a nation that relies on desalination for 90% of its drinking water. The strike injured several workers at the oil facility and triggered a major fire at the desalination plant, forcing multiple power generation units offline.
The Kuwait Fire Force reported that several firefighters and an industrial worker sustained injuries while combating two other blazes ignited by the Iranian strikes. Earlier on Saturday, Kuwaiti air defense systems successfully intercepted and shot down other Iranian missiles launched at the Gulf state. Amid the missile threats, Kuwait briefly closed its airspace, prompting Kuwait Airways to reschedule the majority of its flights to and from the capital city.
Elsewhere in the region, air defense activities intensified. Iraq announced it had shot down attack drones over the city of Irbil, while Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency confirmed that Jordanian air defense systems intercepted and downed Iranian missiles. Air raid sirens sounded multiple times on Saturday in Bahrain, as well as in Saudi Arabia during the morning hours. Condemning the attacks, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, the secretary general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), accused Iran of committing war crimes by targeting civilian facilities and critical infrastructure.
These developments followed the seventh consecutive night of U.S. airstrikes. Central Command stated that those earlier Saturday operations successfully targeted Iranian surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage facilities, and maritime capabilities. Iranian state television reported that U.S. airstrikes also hit an electricity and desalination plant in southern Hormozgan province. IRNA confirmed the complete destruction of the Bonji desalination plant, which cut off drinking water to approximately 10,000 residents, and noted that another desalination facility on the strategic Qeshm Island inside the strait sustained damage.
Overnight U.S. strikes also targeted transportation infrastructure, damaging a bridge and two tunnels. This disrupted one of the primary highways leading toward Bandar Abbas, Iran's key port city located near the narrowest point of the Strait of Hormuz. IRNA reported that a total of three bridges were struck on Saturday, including a key route to Bandar Abbas. On Friday, Iran's Energy Ministry acknowledged "attacks on power infrastructure" for the first time, urging residents in southern provinces to reduce electricity consumption amid extreme summer heat, though it did not detail the specific targets hit. According to Iranian authorities, at least 50 people have been killed and over 500 wounded in U.S. strikes over the past three weeks, including eight individuals killed in a strike on a bridge on Friday.
The war originally began on February 28 with a series of U.S. and Israeli strikes, after which Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping. This closure has provided Tehran with significant leverage in negotiations. While the international community has long recognized the strait as an international waterway, Iran maintains that it must remain under its exclusive control and has demanded that transiting vessels pay fees to Tehran. Iran has fired on several ships in recent days, causing vessel transits through the waterway to plunge to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker.
In response, Donald Trump has resumed threats to target Iran's power stations and bridges to pressure Tehran into relinquishing its hold on the strait. Last week, the U.S. reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to block crude oil exports. On Saturday, the U.S. military announced that it had redirected five vessels and disabled one since the blockade was instituted. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, the U.S. had been engaged in diplomatic negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program. Trump now faces mounting domestic political pressure to bring an end to the war and avoid the prolonged Middle Eastern conflict that he had campaigned against.
Previous U.S. casualties recorded in the conflict include a helicopter pilot who crashed in the Arabian Sea earlier this month. Early in the war, an Iranian drone strike on a command center in Kuwait killed six soldiers, while one soldier died after an attack on a base in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, six service members were killed when a refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq.
