The U.S. military began a ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran on Sunday. The human toll continued to climb over the weekend. Hormuz traffic has slowed to the lowest level in three weeks, with Brent crude futures topping $90 a barrel.
The U.S. military on Sunday continued its campaign aimed at destroying Tehran's ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. Central Command completed the ninth consecutive evening of strikes against Iran, at 10 p.m. ET on Sunday. The three-hour exercise targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites.
The warring powers have intensified their attacks in the region, stoking fears of a return to full war, with Washington and Tehran accusing each other of violating a memorandum of understanding reached in June. The waterway, which handled around 20% of the world's oil traffic before the war, has become the central battleground of the war that began on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran. Oil rose on the escalation, with Brent crude futures climbing almost 3% to about $90.7 a barrel.
The human toll continued to climb over the weekend. U.S. forces said Sunday that a third American service member was killed in recent fighting with Iran, bringing the number of U.S. personnel killed in the nearly five-month war to 17.
Iranian authorities said Sunday that at least 50 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in the renewed U.S. strikes this month. U.S. strikes have widened in recent days to target civilian infrastructure, including the Bonji desalination plant that cut off water supplies to about 10,000 people.
Hormuz traffic has slowed to the lowest level in three weeks amid renewed hostilities, with only eight passings on Thursday compared to 15 a day earlier. U.S. officials, however, insisted that flows were still holding up, estimating it was at about two-thirds of normal flow.
