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The United States completed its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran early Monday morning, with US Central Command confirming that CENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks. But this round carried a fresh escalation: US strikes hit several locations in Bushehr, Iran’s southern port city and the home of the country’s only civilian nuclear power plant, Iran’s official state news agency IRNA reported.
The IAEA’s Rafael Grossi said the nearby Darkhovin facility is in the “very early stages of construction” and the incident was unlikely to pose a radiological risk — but reiterated calls for military restraint near nuclear sites, the New York Times reported. The watchdog issued the statement hours after Iranian authorities said the site had been struck by projectiles amid the US barrage.
The US casualty toll rose again overnight. A third American service member was killed — this one in northern Iraq during what CENTCOM described as a “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone, CBS News and ANI reported. Another US soldier was injured in the same incident. That brings the confirmed American death toll to at least three since Iran struck the Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan on Saturday.
Iran hit back hard across the Gulf. Kuwait’s military confirmed it was “engaging hostile drone attacks” from Iran early Monday, telling citizens that any explosions heard were from air defense interceptions, per CBS News. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had struck US military targets in Kuwait. In Bahrain — where the US Navy’s 5th Fleet is based — explosions rattled the capital Manama after air raid sirens triggered, AFP journalists on the ground reported.
At the Strait of Hormuz, UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) confirmed a vessel was hit by an unknown projectile near Oman’s coast, caught fire, and was abandoned by its crew — who were picked up by a tugboat. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard separately claimed a second oil tanker was struck and immobilized at the strait, though Reuters could not immediately verify the claim.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Araghchi delivered a stark warning to every oil-dependent capital: “not a single drop” of oil or gas would pass through Hormuz, The Guardian reported Monday morning. In a CNN interview, Araghchi also claimed Iran had restructured its entire launcher system over the eight months between the two war phases so that “no matter how much we fired, our missiles would not run out.” International benchmark Brent crude was trading above $85 a barrel as the strikes continued, per CBS News.
Nine nights in, with American troops dying, Iranian cities struck, Gulf states under fire, and the world’s most critical oil chokepoint contested, neither Washington nor Tehran has shown any appetite for a negotiated pause.
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