By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
U.S. military launched a fresh round of airstrikes on Iran Saturday evening, acting on President Donald Trump’s orders to answer a Friday attack in Jordan that killed two American troops.
U.S. Central Command said the strikes were meant to “hit Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities” as the U.S. seeks to limit Iran’s ability to threaten merchant ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
The strikes also targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which attacked U.S. service members in Jordan on Friday, killing two U.S. soldiers and injuring others.
The soldiers killed in Friday’s attack were active-duty Army members, a U.S. official told The New York Times. The official, who was not named, said the deaths were believed to have resulted from a salvo of Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at a base in Jordan where American troops were stationed.
Several missiles were intercepted, the official added, though one or more got through the site’s air defenses.
An American service member remains missing and four others were hospitalized in Jordan but have since been reelased, according to Central Command. Iran’s military said it struck the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base used by Jordanian and American coalition forces.
In recent days, Iran has varied its methods for striking American personnel at regional bases, combining medium-range ballistic missiles with one-way attack drones to try to overwhelm defense systems, the U.S. official said.
Central Command said it would withhold the names of the dead until 24 hours after their families are notified.
Trump has repeatedly said he would avenge the killing of any American soldier.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, in a Saturday social media post, called the fallen troops heroes and said their sacrifice would strengthen American resolve.
“Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve,” he wrote.
Sixteen American service members have died, and more than 430 have been wounded since fighting with Iran began on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Escalation between the two sides has widened the range of targets and raised fears of an all-out war over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran has closed the waterway, and the U.S. military said it has restored its naval blockade.
American forces ended a planned seven-night run of strikes on Iran the night before, on Friday. Targets included buried weapons depots and surveillance sites.
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, warned on state television Saturday that the U.S. would face unforgettable consequences if it continued its attacks. He also called Trump’s signature on a memorandum of understanding between the two countries worthless and invalid, according to The Associated Press.
Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar said Friday their air defenses intercepted hostile fire. Qatar has served as a mediator in talks aimed at ending the war.
Jordan repelled the attacks, its state media said, and strikes were also reported in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, where a Kurdish Iranian opposition group said at least eight of its fighters were killed.
Friday’s losses add to a series of deadly incidents for American forces during the campaign. A March 1 strike at Kuwait’s Shuaiba port killed six Army soldiers, and a separate March 1 attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia killed one more. Six Air Force members died on March 12 when a KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq.
The most recent death before Friday came on July 1, when Navy Cmdr. Gabriel Edwards, commanding officer of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 5, died after the MH-60S Sea Hawk he was flying crashed into the Arabian Sea. Rescuers pulled three other sailors to safety. The Navy’s Fifth Fleet said the crash was not believed to be the result of enemy action, and the Navy has since ended its search for the pilot.
