The US military has said a service member was killed during a ‘controlled detonation’ of a downed Iranian drone in Iraq, according to reporting by the Guardian. US Central Command (Centcom) described the death as arising from a separate incident that followed a new round of airstrikes launched against Iran.

Centcom’s announcement brought the reported number of US military deaths to four amid escalating tensions across the region. The Guardian reported that two US troops were killed and one was reported missing in Jordan following Iranian attacks.

The new US airstrikes were launched, in the words cited by the Guardian, to ‘swiftly punish’ Iran following the deaths of American troops. The developments mark a sharp intensification of the crisis, with attacks reported in both Iraq and Jordan.

Conflicting accounts emerged over the security situation in the Jordanian city of Aqaba. The US embassy in Jordan said earlier that the airport and seaport in Aqaba had been evacuated by Jordanian authorities because of a ‘specific and credible threat.’

However, Jordanian authorities pushed back on that account. The state news agency cited a government spokesperson as saying authorities had not issued any decision to evacuate the airport or seaport in Aqaba, and had not detected any potential threats in the preceding hours.

The Guardian noted that Israel warned that Tehran’s attacks were coming close, underscoring the widening scope of the crisis. The live coverage of the events has since concluded.