Nearly 100 US troops have been injured over the past two weeks amid the ongoing tensions with Iran, the US Defense Department (Pentagon) has acknowledged. In the same period, Iran claimed retaliatory strikes on various military installations of US allies.
On Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had struck US military installations, air-defense systems and a radar site in Bahrain and Kuwait. The same day, an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was damaged by an unidentified missile, and its crew abandoned ship and took to lifeboats.
Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan said they had activated their defenses to repel the attacks. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said most of the injured troops had suffered mild concussions and that 96 percent had already returned to duty. Denying accusations of concealing casualties from Iranian attacks, he said the Pentagon had hidden nothing.
Three US troops were killed on duty in Jordan and Iraq over the past week. Despite 10 straight nights of US airstrikes, Iran’s influence over the Strait of Hormuz has not waned. A large share of the world’s seaborne crude oil and natural gas passes through the strait. Regional tensions rose further after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group declared a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia.
A Houthi official said the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea, would be closed to Saudi shipping in protest of Saudi Arabia’s long-running blockade of Yemen, though no details were given on how it would be enforced. In the past, the Houthis have shown the ability to disrupt international shipping by attacking vessels over the Gaza war. Saudi Arabia’s military said it would keep shipping open in the waterway.
As part of diplomatic efforts to ease the conflict, Iran’s interior minister visited Pakistan. But with last month’s interim understanding having collapsed, it remains uncertain whether any new solution will emerge.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen significantly because of the conflict, and attacks by both sides are damaging civilian infrastructure. Oil prices have risen on international markets: Brent crude traded above $88 a barrel on Tuesday, and the average price of a gallon of petrol in the United States reached $4.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received multiple reports of an oil tanker damaged by an unidentified projectile near the coast of Oman. The vessel’s crew took to lifeboats safely, and no environmental damage had been reported so far.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report