US launches ninth night of strikes on Iran as Trump cites nuclear goal and honours fallen soldiers
US forces struck Iranian command centres, air defences and coastal surveillance in a ninth consecutive nightly operation, while President Trump said the campaign has probably already prevented an Iranian nuclear-armed missile after only a week and a half.
The ninth night
US Central Command announced that the ninth consecutive night of strikes on Iran began at 7.00 pm Eastern time on Sunday (1.00 am Monday in Poland) and ended at 10.00 pm Eastern (4.00 am in Poland). Aircraft and stand-off weapons hit military command centres, air-defence and coastal-surveillance positions, naval assets, sites used to deploy and launch missiles and drones, and communications networks.
The aim, according to CENTCOM, was to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The nightly campaign now spans nine days without pause.
Trump speaks on the return flight
Speaking to journalists aboard his flight from the football World Cup final near New York back to Washington, President Trump framed the strikes as a tribute to fallen American troops. He also disclosed a tightly held operational goal for the first time.
We hit them again very hard tonight and we did it in honour of three, more likely three than two, great patriots.
The president assessed that the Iranians had lost practically everything militarily, retaining only some rockets, some drones and limited production capacity. He declared that the US now controls the Strait of Hormuz while Iran controls nothing, and that after roughly ten days the campaign had likely stripped Iran of any possibility of fielding a nuclear-armed missile.
US casualties after the Jordan and Iraq incidents
Two US soldiers were killed and one listed as missing following an Iranian ballistic-missile and drone attack on a US airbase in Jordan on Friday. On Sunday, unidentified human remains were found at the site and identification is under way. Separately, one American soldier died and another was wounded on Saturday in northern Iraq during a controlled demolition of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian kamikaze drone.
The toll of confirmed dead has reached at least three, with Trump himself estimating three fatalities.
Iran’s response and the Bahrain warning
Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that Tehran retaliated by launching missiles at “hostile targets”. The US Embassy in Bahrain issued a warning that it possessed information indicating Iran may be planning strikes on certain locations in central Manama and urged Americans in the country to exercise caution.
- Iranian ballistic and drone attack on a US airbase in Jordan kills two US soldiers, one reported missing.
- One US soldier killed, another wounded in northern Iraq during detonation of an unexploded Iranian kamikaze drone.
- Ninth consecutive night of US strikes on Iran begins at 7.00 pm Eastern (1.00 am in Poland).
- US operation ends at 10.00 pm Eastern; Iran claims missile launch at hostile targets, US Embassy in Bahrain issues strike warning.
- Unidentified human remains found at the Jordan airbase; identification process begins.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking before his departure for Manila and an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting, said the United States remains open to diplomacy.
The United States always remains open to a diplomatic solution. We have repeatedly attempted talks with Iran and will continue. If a possibility of dialogue arises, we will gladly seize it.
He added that Iran continues to signal a willingness to talk while its actions consist of launching missiles and drones against ships, including on Sunday evening.
Escalation warnings
The Washington Post reported that the exchange of strikes on civilian and military targets intensified on Sunday and that the two countries are moving toward full-scale conflict. An unnamed US official familiar with internal discussions told the paper that the United States is preparing for a wider conflict.
