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Drone Disposal Kills
The U.S. military said a U.S. service member in northern Iraq was killed in action on Saturday during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone.
The Guardian reported that Centcom said the incident brought the total number of U.S. service members who have died since the U.S. and Israel launched war against Iran five months ago to 17, and that more than 430 U.S. troops have been wounded.
ABC News said the Saturday death brought the total number of U.S. service members killed since the war began to 17, and it quoted Centcom on the missing case: "After a thorough search, U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location earlier today."
ABC News also said the wounded service member’s injury was "minor," according to CENTCOM, as the U.S. continued strikes after the deaths of two American service members in Jordan.
The Guardian added that Centcom said an examination process to verify the remains is ongoing, while the U.S. vowed to "swiftly punish" Iran for the Jordan attack that left two U.S. service members dead and one missing.
Punish and Escalate
POLITICO.eu said Tehran struck U.S. allies across the Persian Gulf region on Sunday while American forces bombed Iran for an eighth straight night, with the interim peace deal dead and neither side backing down.
The Times of Israel reported that the United States completed an eighth straight night of strikes and said they were intended to “punish” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for a deadly strike that killed two U.S. military personnel in Jordan and left another missing.
In its account of the U.S. rationale, POLITICO.eu said Centcom described the latest strikes as designed to “swiftly punish” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces for the Jordan attack and to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten shipping in the strait.
ABC News quoted Energy Secretary Chris Wright telling ABC News’ “This Week” that the U.S. mission will go on until President Donald Trump achieves his war goals, saying, “So yes, this mission will go on until the mission is done,”
The Guardian described the diplomatic and regional response as Jordan’s foreign ministry summoning the chargé d’affaires of the Iranian embassy in Amman to deliver “a strongly worded protest message” about the attacks.
Strait of Hormuz Stakes
Multiple outlets tied the next phase of the conflict to the Strait of Hormuz, with CNBC saying the latest U.S. strikes were aimed to “degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz” and to “punish” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces.
“Toggle Play US bombs Iran for eighth-straight night The US has launched a new wave of strikes on Iran after two American soldiers were killed by Iranian strikes in Jordan”
AP said the U.S. carried out new airstrikes to “swiftly punish” the country’s Revolutionary Guard after an attack in Jordan killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalization, and it said the waterway accounted for roughly 20% of global oil supplies before the war.
The Guardian reported that the U.S. military launched further strikes after vowing to “swiftly punish” Iran for an attack on Jordan that left two U.S. service members dead and one missing, as fears deepened that the war could spiral further into a wider regional conflict.
ABC News said the International Atomic Energy Agency was “looking into reports of an overnight attack on the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in Darkhovin, Iran,” and it quoted the IAEA saying the facility was in the very early stages of construction and contained no nuclear material when last visited.
In parallel, CNBC reported that Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran has suspended its commitments to the memorandum of understanding signed last month with the U.S., saying, “We have also suspended our commitments; we are not implementing them and are busy defending our country.”
