US bombs Iran for ninth straight night as Hormuz tensions rise

U.S. strikes on Iran continued for a ninth straight night, with blasts reported in Tabriz and Chabahar and another American service member confirmed killed in the escalation. The widening campaign has pushed the fight beyond a battlefield exchange and into a direct test of whether the conflict stays contained or spreads into the Strait of Hormuz, a critical choke point for global energy supplies.

Reuters said the United States launched strikes on Iran for a ninth day as the fighting intensified after repeated Iranian attacks and growing fears of wider war. The U.S. campaign has been framed by American officials as an effort to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten the Strait of Hormuz, while Iranian leaders have warned the waterway is a red line. Al Jazeera reported that Iran declared the strait closed during the escalation and that its officials said they would resist until the end.

The human toll on U.S. forces has also sharpened the stakes. An earlier Iranian attack in Jordan killed two American service members and left one missing, and later reporting said three U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict, with five others wounded. The latest death adds pressure on President Donald Trump, who said Iran had been hit “very hard,” and on the U.S. military as it continues to absorb casualties while widening its response.

The fighting has also reached deeper into Iranian territory. Iranian media reported blasts in the far north and far south, including Tabriz and Chabahar. Al Jazeera also reported power outages and an attack on a train station in Bandar Abbas during earlier strikes, underscoring how the conflict has begun to affect civilian infrastructure far from the original flashpoints.

The U.S. military said new airstrikes were launched to “swiftly punish” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard for the attack in Jordan that killed the two American service members. But the longer the strikes continue, the more they raise the risk of mission creep, with Iran threatening broader seaways and Gulf states if the war expands. For Washington, the question is no longer only how to answer a killing in Jordan, but how far the fight can spread before Hormuz and the wider region are pulled fully into it.