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The U.S. military said Monday it completed another round of airstrikes against Iran, marking the ninth consecutive night of operations as fighting between the two countries continued to escalate.
U.S. Central Command said the latest strikes targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense systems, coastal surveillance sites, maritime assets, missile and drone launch locations, and communications networks.
Iranian state media reported explosions in southern and northwestern parts of the country but did not immediately provide information on casualties or damage.
The latest operation followed the announcement that another U.S. service member had died in Iraq. The military said the soldier was killed Saturday during the controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone.
“We hit them very hard again tonight,” President Donald Trump said. “And we did that in honor of the” slain soldiers.
Earlier, the military said the latest strikes also targeted units of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in retaliation for Friday’s attack on a U.S. base in Jordan that killed American troops.
One service member remains unaccounted for after that attack, although the military said Sunday that “unidentified remains” had been recovered and were undergoing examination.
The latest death brings the number of U.S. service members killed since the conflict began to 17.
Central Command said the continuing strikes are intended to reduce Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” the command said in a statement.
As the latest strikes unfolded, a commercial vessel caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Oman, according to the British military. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, although Iran’s Revolutionary Guard later claimed responsibility for targeting tankers in the waterway.