United States forces launched strikes on Iran for a ninth consecutive night on Sunday, July 19, hours after the military confirmed a third soldier had been killed in combat.
CENTCOM announced via social media that strikes began at 7 p.m. EST, with the stated aim to "continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz."
Earlier airstrikes over the weekend had targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces deemed responsible for a fatal attack on U.S. assets in Jordan on Friday. These strikes concluded Saturday at 11:30 p.m.
On Sunday, CENTCOM reported that a third service member died during a "controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone" in Northern Iraq on Saturday.
The military has not released the identities of the service members out of respect for their families. More than 50,000 troops are currently deployed across the Middle East.
