A US military precision strike on targets inside Iran in the early hours of Sunday. [Screen capture from US CENTCOM footage]
A US military precision strike on targets inside Iran in the early hours of Sunday. [Screen capture from US CENTCOM footage]

Military tensions between the United States and Iran, which had appeared to be easing, are flaring up again. The deaths of US service members prompted Washington to expand its retaliatory airstrikes against Iran, and Tehran struck back by attacking two US military bases in Kuwait.

CENTCOM said it carried out airstrikes against Iran from 6 p.m. Friday (7 a.m. Saturday, Korean Standard Time) to 11:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. Saturday, KST). The five-and-a-half-hour nighttime operation marked the eighth consecutive day of strikes and was carried out on the orders of President Donald Trump, CENTCOM said.

CENTCOM said the strikes successfully hit Iranian military coastal surveillance facilities, air defense sites, maritime assets, and missile and drone storage depots. It added that IRGC units responsible for attacking US military personnel on Friday were also targeted.

CENTCOM had said Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq, Jordan on Friday, killing two US service members and leaving one missing. It was the first time US troops had been killed in the conflict since a truce was reached in early April.

The war between the US and Israel on one side and Iran on the other broke out in late February and had appeared to be winding down after the signing of the "Islamabad MOU" last month. But the truce effectively collapsed earlier this month.

President Donald Trump warned that if Iran does not agree to US terms by this weekend, the US will bomb power plants, bridges and other infrastructure. US forces have already begun destroying some civilian infrastructure, including bridges, and Iran has responded in kind.

Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, sent a written statement to state television in which he called the United States the "Great Satan" and said the renewed fighting was "yet another clear proof of America's dishonesty, irrationality, untrustworthiness and baseness."


yeongdai@heraldcorp.com