President Donald Trump declared on Monday that Iran would “pay many times over” for every American soldier killed, after the Pentagon confirmed the deaths of three US service members in separate incidents over the weekend. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump stated he had instructed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Daniel Caine, and all military leaders to ensure a harsher response to future attacks. The fatalities included two soldiers killed during an Iranian ballistic missile and drone strike on a base in Jordan — identified as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales — and a third who died in northern Iraq while conducting a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone. A fourth service member remains missing in Jordan, with US officials recovering unidentified remains at the site.

According to US Central Command, American forces launched their ninth consecutive night of airstrikes against Iranian military command centres, air defence and coastal surveillance sites, missile and drone launch facilities, and communications networks. The Pentagon described the operations as aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and punishing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units blamed for attacks on US troops. Iranian state media reported that the strikes killed at least one person near Tabriz, a city believed to host underground IRGC missile bases, and also hit targets in Khuzestan, Hormozgan, and Sistan and Baluchistan provinces.

Iran’s IRGC claimed responsibility for retaliatory missile attacks on US military facilities across the region, including Jordan’s Aqaba airport, Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, and positions in Syria. Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain, while Kuwait’s military said it intercepted hostile drones. The IRGC also asserted that two oil tankers exploded after attempting to transit what it called an “unsafe” route through the Strait of Hormuz, and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency reported a separate vessel struck by a projectile off the coast of Oman, leaving the ship adrift but its crew safe. The conflict has increasingly affected civilian infrastructure: Kuwait confirmed that one of its desalination plants came under attack for a second consecutive day, causing a fire and heightening fears of water shortages for millions of Gulf residents.

The current escalation follows the collapse of an interim ceasefire reached weeks earlier. Viewed from Tehran, the US resumed what it terms “aggressive” military operations and a naval blockade in early July, violating the Islamabad understanding. From Washington, the strikes are presented as necessary to keep international shipping lanes open and to respond to Iranian attacks on American personnel. Russian media reports have claimed that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a US strike earlier in the conflict, a development that has not been independently verified but which US officials have previously suggested could simplify future negotiations. The war, now in its fifth month, has drawn in regional actors, with Yemen’s Houthi movement announcing a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia, further threatening global energy flows.

The US Congress is scheduled to hold a hearing on Tuesday with Secretary Hegseth and General Caine, where the financial and human costs of the war are expected to be scrutinised. No diplomatic channel is currently active, and both sides have signalled that military operations will continue.