US and Iran trade fire after two US soldiers killed in Jordan

The US and Iran have exchanged strikes for an eighth consecutive day, after an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed two US soldiers and left another missing.

Iranian media said an under-construction nuclear power plant in the south-western city of Darkhoveyn had been struck overnight, as well as Qeshm Island. In Kuwait an electricity and water plant was hit for a second time, local officials said.

Later on Sunday three Iranian missiles were shot down by Jordan’s military, and a fourth fell in a remote area, Jordan’s state news agency said. It followed a US warning that the Jordanian port of Aqaba could be targeted.

The US and Iran have ramped up attacks against each other in recent days, with both sides accused of striking critical infrastructure.

Washington has also reimposed its blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran has declared the Strait of Hormuz – a key oil shipping route – closed, as their preliminary ceasefire collapsed less than a month after it began.

On Sunday, the IRGC said two vessels had ignored Iranian warnings not to transit the Strait and were consequently involved in “an accident”. It warned that all vessels that are “influenced” by the US and “use unsafe routes” will “certainly face accidents”.

The US military said its eighth successive night of attacks on Iran were “designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz” and “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night”.

Verified footage from inside the Jordanian facility showed at least two impacts and an explosion.