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Tehran air defenses activated
For the first time since the start of the latest escalation in the Iran war, the air defense system in Tehran was activated again, with a dpa reporter saying muffled explosions were heard overnight in the northeastern part of the metropolis.
The Guardian said the renewed pressure came as U.S. forces launched a 10th consecutive wave of attacks against Iranian targets, while Democrats seized on the killing of three U.S. troops in Iranian strikes to urge Donald Trump to reverse his resumption of the war with Iran.
The Guardian also put the latest U.S. death count since the start of the war on 28 February at at least 17, and said nearly 100 U.S. service members have been injured over the last two weeks of escalating strikes.
In parallel, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that U.S. military bombing continued across Iran for an 11th straight night, and that residents reported hearing explosions in the early hours of Wednesday in Tehran as Iran activated its air defenses over the capital.
The same Honolulu Star-Advertiser account said explosions were also reported in Chabahar and Konarak, and that two explosions were heard in Bushehr, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
Democrats press Trump, Iran hits back
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, accused Donald Trump of having “frighteningly lost control of this war,” as the Guardian described anxiety over rising numbers of casualties tied to the killing of three U.S. troops in Iranian strikes.
The Guardian said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded by targeting U.S. military sites, including air defence systems and a radar installation in Bahrain and Kuwait, and that the crew of a tanker in the strait of Hormuz reported being struck by an unknown projectile.
The Hill reported that the servicemembers’ deaths brought the U.S. death toll in the Iran war to 17 since the conflict broke out in March, and said nearly 100 service members in the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) theater had sustained injuries since the U.S. military began daily waves of strikes against Iran on July 7.
The Hill also quoted Victoria Coates, a former national security adviser, saying the deaths marked “a new phase” in the war, and said Trump warned in a TruthSocial post that “every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!”
Meanwhile, The Hill said Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters that the two countries were still exchanging messages through mediators, adding: “We have been informed by mediators, we have received messages”.
Costs, escalation threats, and next steps
The Hill said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told U.S. senators during a hearing that the war, which Congress has not authorized, had cost $37.5 billion so far, and he asked them to approve another $70 billion in “supplemental” funds to replenish depleted missile supplies.
“Saudi oil tankers turn back as Houthis open new front in U”
In the same reporting, the Guardian said concern over deaths of American service personnel threatened to complicate moves to escalate the conflict, which has reignited after Trump last week walked away from a memorandum of understanding agreed with Iran in June.
Honolulu Star-Advertiser described a widening Middle East conflict that disrupted shipping through the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, saying the Houthis control northern and western Yemen including the coast at the mouth of the Red Sea and announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser also reported that Trump said the Houthis had not yet shut the Bab el-Mandeb, the “Gate of Tears” strait leading into the Red Sea, and threatened to act against them if they did, while adding: “So far it hasn’t happened,” Trump said.
DIE WELT reported that Iran’s supreme military command said that if the United States attacked Iranian nuclear facilities or other “sensitive facilities,” Tehran would regard this as an expansion of the war to the entire region, and that “All interests of the United States, its allies and its supporters will be targets of powerful attacks”.
