Trump warns Iran will pay 'many times over' for deaths of US soldiers

Watch: Latest Iran strikes carried out 'in honour' of fallen US troops, says Trump

President Donald Trump has vowed to punish Iran for the deaths of US soldiers, saying Tehran would pay "many times over".

His warning came on Monday, several hours after he had said the latest US strikes that hit Iran "very hard" were in honour of three American soldiers killed recently - two in Jordan and one in Iraq.

The US military said the strikes - conducted for the ninth consecutive night - had hit military and communications sites to "further diminish" Iran's attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran said it had hit sites in Bahrain and Syria, and also targeted US aircraft in Jordan. President Masoud Pezeshkian later said Iran was fighting a "full-scale war" with the US.

News imageUS Central Command A US F-35 fighter on an aircraft carrier with a night skyUS Central Command
Explosions were heard across several Iranian cities after the US launched strikes overnight

Tehran said diplomatic messages were still being exchanged by both sides through intermediaries, despite a collapse of a ceasefire.

Late on Monday, Jordan's military said it had shot down three Iranian missiles, as sirens sounded across the country warning of incoming fire.

Kuwait's armed forces earlier said they had intercepted Iranian drones.

Bahrain said drones launched by Iran had targeted its air navigation systems, but traffic remained unaffected.

On the US strikes, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that several cities had been hit including Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini.

There were also Iranian state media reports that two oil tankers had exploded as the vessels tried to cross the strait.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the tankers were going through what it called an "unsafe and hazardous southern route" of the strait and "exploded and were brought to a halt".

US Central Command (Centcom) disputed the claims.

The IRGC added that the strait "will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas" as long as the US strikes continue and that it will respond with a "punitive operation".

Over the weekend, the US confirmed that a service member had been killed after an Iranian attack in northern Iraq on Saturday.

That news came after the US said a separate attack on a base in Jordan on Friday had killed two soldiers there. The two have now been identified by the Pentagon as Pte Isabella Gonzales, 19, and Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25.

A third service member was declared missing after the attack in Jordan, and US officials say "unidentified remains" have been found during the search process.

As the strikes continued over the weekend, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US "always remains open to a diplomatic solution".

He also said "the world has to decide whether or not it's going to allow an international waterway to be under the control" of Iran, saying Tehran was using the crucial shipping route as leverage.

His comments come as a preliminary deal made in mid-June to stop fighting has unravelled, with negotiations for a permanent peace making little progress after Trump declared the agreement was "over" on 8 July.