US and Iran Trade Strikes Again as Washington Avenges American Deaths

Tehran struck U.S. allies across the Persian Gulf region on Sunday and American forces bombed Iran for an eighth straight night, with the interim peace deal dead and neither side backing down. Last month’s agreement was meant to pause the fighting while the two sides worked toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world’s traded oil in peacetime. But the accord has collapsed and Iran said on Saturday that it was suspending its commitments, accusing Washington of violating the deal first.

U.S. Central Command said its latest strikes, which concluded early Sunday, were designed to “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces” for an attack in Jordan on Friday that killed two American service members, and to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten shipping in the strait. The attacks hit Iranian coastal surveillance and air defense sites, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage facilities.

Iran’s joint military command said in a statement carried by state media that U.S. “covetousness, bullying, totalitarianism or brutality” would meet a “devastating response.” Iranian strikes hit a Kuwaiti power and water desalination plant for the second time in two days, Kuwait’s electricity ministry said, sparking a fire in a country that relies on desalination for about 90 percent of its drinking water. Bahrain reported intercepting attacks, and Jordan said it shot down three of four Iranian missiles aimed toward its territory. Israel warned that projectiles fired toward the port city of Aqaba could spill over into its territory for the first time in weeks.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright insisted Sunday that oil is still moving through the Hormuz channel despite the fighting, telling ABC’s “This Week” program that flows from the Gulf region stand at just under 14 million barrels a day, or two-thirds of pre-conflict traffic. Iran’s atomic energy agency said U.S. strikes hit the unfinished Darkhovin nuclear power plant in Khuzestan province. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was investigating and that the site, still in early construction, holds no nuclear material and poses no radiological risk. Iranian authorities said 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest American strikes. Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s signature on the interim deal was “utterly worthless and devoid of credibility.” Asked about Tehran abandoning the deal, Trump told NewsNation: “I couldn’t care less.”