U.S. forces carried out another round of strikes against Iran on Sunday, marking the ninth straight night of military action and coming just hours after officials confirmed a third American service member had died in combat.
In a statement posted to social media Sunday evening, U.S. Central Command said operations began at 7 p.m. EST and pledged to “continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
Over the weekend, American airstrikes had already hit Iranian missile storage sites, drones and air-defense systems, with U.S. military officials promising “swift punishment” after two service members were killed.
The strikes, which ended at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces accused of carrying out Friday’s deadly attack on U.S. assets in Jordan.
CENTCOM later said a third service member was killed Saturday in northern Iraq during the “controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone.”
President Donald Trump, speaking Sunday with NewsNation’s Hannah Brandt, described the deaths as “a very sad thing,” while saying the troops died “in service to our country.” He also repeated his administration’s position that “we’re never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Along with the two initial deaths, one service member remains missing in action, and four others were evacuated for medical treatment at hospitals in Jordan following the attack. CENTCOM said Saturday that those troops have since been discharged.
The military has not publicly identified the fallen soldiers, citing respect for their families, as more than 50,000 U.S. troops remain deployed across the Middle East.
CENTCOM described those forces as “highly vigilant, focused, lethal, and ready.”
United States forces launched strikes on Iran for a ninth consecutive night on Sunday. A recent strike on Iranian assets is pictured
The US devastated Iranian missile depots, drones and air defenses in the latest barrage of airstrikes after promising ‘swift punishment’ for the deaths of two American service members
But Seyed Mohammed Marandi, an Iranian-American academic who has been labeled a ‘mouthpiece’ for the Islamic regime, said Tehran has spent decades preparing for a US ground invasion.
‘The Americans are planning an invasion. I’m not saying it will necessarily happen. I’m not saying it will necessarily happen in the next few days. But they have plans for an invasion,’ Marandi, a former advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team, said in an interview with political analyst Glenn Diesen.
‘Whether they carry them out or not, we’ll see. But the Iranians, as you pointed out, the focus of Iranian strikes is on Bahrain and Kuwait, and that’s because that’s where most American assets have been placed for a ground invasion,’ Diesen replied.
The remarks came as Iran taunted the US with chilling billboards that have fueled conspiracy theories about Senator Lindsey Graham’s death and hinted at a possible assassination plot against President Trump.
A heavily-damaged bridge which was hit by a US strike is pictured along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on July 18
A massive red billboard popped up in Valiasr Square in Tehran this week, with an eerie message reading: ‘Who is D nexT one? #lindseygraham.’
It appeared to hint that Trump, 80, is Tehran’s next target, as the slogan in English had the unusual capitalization of the letters ‘D’ and ‘T’ appearing to reference the 47th US President.
In Enghelab Square, in central Tehran, a gigantic corner billboard displayed an image of the US President, his body dressed in a suit peeking out from an open black coffin. Written underneath, in graffiti-style in Persian and English, were the words: ‘We will kill Trump.’
These political billboards are the latest in a series targeting the US President. Earlier this week, a mural with individual, framed images of Trump, his children and Melania set above US flag-draped coffins and a backdrop of the White House, was unveiled in Palestine Square in Iran.
Billboards have popped up around Tehran, hinting at a Trump assassination plan
One billboard showed Trump in a coffin
The newest billboards have also fueled conspiracy theories that the Middle Eastern country may have been involved in Graham’s mysterious death at the age of 71 last weekend, as the politician was in Ukraine just days before, leading people to speculate Tehran may have orchestrated it.
There has been no confirmation or evidence suggesting Iran had anything to do with the senator’s death.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
