THE US military launched airstrikes on Sunday targeting Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for the killing of American troops in Jordan, further widening crossfire between the nations as an interim deal seeking an end to their war has collapsed. The strikes are part of a weeklong campaign that began with a struggle over control of the Strait of Hormuz and has seen Iran strike US-allied countries across the Middle East. The US has targeted bridges, electrical facilities and other targets in Iran, andTehran has retaliated by hitting power and desalination plants in Kuwait, threatening daily life in that small, oil-rich desert nation. Iran also has stepped up its threats to further expand the strikes, drawing a warning overnight from the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait again activated air defences on Sunday morning as its military warned of incoming Iranian drones and missiles.

 

The US military’s Central Command in its statement also said it hit“Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defence facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites.” It also said for the first time it specifically targeting the Guard, a key power base in Iran’s theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal. Footage released by the US military appeared to show strikes carried out by fighter jets and by Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the sea. One target site appeared to be in a valley of a mountainous region. The Guard often has missile bases and other military equipment tucked into mountain ranges. Iran has provided no overall information on its materiel losses in the American campaign, which is now in its eighth day as the nations vie over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes in peacetime. An Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalisation, the US military said.