Almost 100 troops injured in recent weeks, Pentagon admits, as Iran launches reprisals on US allies

US service members aboard amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Arabian Sea. Nearly 100 US personnel have been injured over the last two weeks, the Pentagon has said. Photograph: U.S. Central Command/X View image in fullscreen US service members aboard amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Arabian Sea. Nearly 100 US personnel have been injured over the last two weeks, the Pentagon has said. Photograph: U.S. Central Command/X Almost 100 troops injured in recent weeks, Pentagon admits, as Iran launches reprisals on US allies Iran has attacked a tanker in the strait of Hormuz, forcing its crew to abandon the ship, after the US launched a tenth consecutive night of strikes Middle East crisis live: follow latest updates Nearly 100 US service members have been injured over the last two weeks of escalating strikes on Iran , the Pentagon has said, as Tehran launched a wave of reprisals to the tenth consecutive night of attacks. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday they had targeted US military sites including air defence systems and a radar installation in Bahrain and Kuwait, while a tanker in the strait of Hormuz reported being ⁠struck by an unknown projectile, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat. Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan all said they had activated defences to repel the attacks, but the scale of US injuries at facilities across the region over recent week is likely to bring greater scrutiny to Iran’s reprisal attacks. ‘It needs to end now’: Democrats urge Trump to halt Iran war after US troop deaths Read more Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the vast majority of those injured only experienced “minor concussions” and 96% had since returned to work. Parnell was responding to a New York Times report that the Pentagon has withheld information about troop injuries from Iranian strikes. He denied that the Pentagon was hiding data about injuries. In the last week three US soldiers have been killed in action in Jordan and Iraq. The 10 consecutive nights of US airstrikes haven’t compelled Tehran to loosen its grip on the strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. Efforts to rein in the costs that the disruption is having on global trade and oil prices were complicated further on Monday, after Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis announced they were imposing a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia. There were few details on how the embargo might work, but a Houthi official said that the Bab al-Mandeb strait – at the southern end of the Red Sea through which about 12% of the world’s trade usually passes – would be closed to the Saudis in response to the kingdom’s “unjust blockade on Yemenis for over 10 years”. The Houthis have demonstrated their ability to disrupt shipping in the past by targeting vessels over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Saudi Arabia’s military said it would keep the waterway open, but the threat will put further pressure on the country’