The US military says it is carrying out the tenth consecutive night of strikes on Iran

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said late Monday that it had carried out a 10th straight night of strikes on Iran in an attempt to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The renewed bombings came in the wake of the killing of another American soldier, and came after Iran launched attacks on America’s allies in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

US Central Command said on social media that the latest strikes “aim to further weaken Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping” in the strait.

Even as the United States and Iran approach all-out war again, a glimmer of hope has emerged on the diplomatic front, with Iran’s interior minister traveling to Pakistan, the main mediator in the conflict, for talks.

An interim agreement signed last month aimed at ending the fighting has collapsed. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz – a vital supply route for global energy supplies – has been largely halted. As the fighting intensified, both sides targeted the civilian infrastructure on which millions of people depend.

A new potential threat to global energy markets emerged on Monday after Iran-backed rebels in Yemen announced they intend to block Saudi Arabia from shipping in the Red Sea, an alternative route for oil exports during the war.

Read more: The US Army identifies two soldiers killed in the Iranian attack on Jordan

The escalation led to a rise in oil prices in recent weeks. Benchmark Brent crude on Monday traded above $88 a barrel and regular gasoline in the U.S. rose to an average of $4 a gallon, keeping pressure on Americans’ wallets ahead of the midterm elections this fall.

The US Army identified two soldiers killed in Jordan in attacks that led to the loss of a third person. Separately, the military confirmed that another person was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone. President Donald Trump took to social media on Monday to warn that “every time Iran kills an American soldier, it will pay for that killing many times over!”

Trump had planned to attend a ceremony Tuesday evening at Dover Air Force Base, where the remains of at least one soldier were scheduled to arrive.

The United States targets strategic sites in Iran

US Central Command said that the air strikes on Sunday targeted “Iranian military command centers, air defense sites, coastal surveillance, maritime capabilities, missile launch sites, drones, and communications networks.” Last week, the United States struck bridges and a tower in an Iranian port.

The state-run IRNA news agency reported that the US strikes killed at least one person around Tabriz, a northwestern city about 520 kilometers (325 miles) from the capital, Tehran. Tabriz is believed to host underground missile bases run by the paramilitary Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The US strikes also likely hit Bandar Imam Khomeini in Khuzestan Province, Sirik and Jask in Hormozgan Province, and Qanarak and Shahbahar in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, IRNA reported.

The British Army’s Maritime Trade Operations Center said on Monday evening that a second ship had been attacked the previous day in the Strait of Hormuz, this ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

The other ship caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a shell near the coast of Oman. The crew abandoned the ship adrift, still burning hours later, UKMTO said.

The route around Oman was the route that the US military encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iranian control. The Revolutionary Guard later claimed it was targeting tankers in the strait.

Tehran also struck US-allied countries across the Middle East.

Kuwait said its air defenses fired on a barrage of missiles, and the Jordanian Armed Forces said on Monday evening that they shot down three Iranian missiles, adding that there was no material damage or injuries. There was no immediate news from Iran.

The Bahraini Foreign Ministry condemned Iranian drone strikes that targeted the country’s air traffic systems, saying they endanger civilian travel.

The Strait of Hormuz remains key to the conflict

Ships in the Strait of Hormuz can be seen near the shore of Bandar Abbas, Iran, in May. Photography by Majid Asgharipour/West Asia News Agency (WANA) via Reuters

A new pressure point may emerge on global energy markets, as Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday announced a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia. The Houthis, backed by Iran, said they would block shipping between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in response to an attack on Sanaa International Airport last week that they blamed on Saudi Arabia.

With the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia relied on a pipeline to the Red Sea to deliver millions of barrels of oil to the market. The Houthis previously demonstrated their ability to disrupt shipping there when they targeted ships for several months during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, during which more than 100 ships were attacked.

There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia.

Trump has threatened to target Iranian power plants and bridges in an attempt to force Tehran to loosen its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil supplies were shipped before the war. The recent attacks indicate that the US military is implementing this plan.

Last week, the United States re-imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to stop their shipments of crude oil. The military says it has since redirected seven ships and disabled one.

A ray of hope for diplomacy

Pakistan has intensified its diplomatic efforts in recent days to revive a temporary ceasefire reached last month that called for remaining issues linked to the war to be resolved within 60 days. The truce collapsed after both sides resumed their attacks on each other’s military installations and other infrastructure.

Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni arrived in Islamabad on Monday for two-day talks with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and others. Momeni’s counterpart, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, expressed his optimism.

“God willing, we will have good news,” Naqvi said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Sunday that the United States is still open to negotiating with Iran, but “it must be real.”

“If the door is opened to diplomacy — if people who want to do something productive for Iran win and take control of this regime, or take control of the negotiations — that will be a very positive development,” Rubio said. “That’s not who we are tonight, unfortunately.”

Iranian authorities said on Sunday that at least 50 people were killed and 517 wounded in the latest round of US strikes. Since the war began on February 28, 17 American soldiers have been killed.

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Munir Ahmad in Islamabad, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Michelle L. Price in Washington.