Yesterday Choukeir and Enas Alashray
Dubai/Cairo: The United States struck bridges in Iran, and Tehran responded by striking a power plant and desalination plant in Kuwait, as the two sides risked further escalation by expanding their targets to include infrastructure.
At sea, where a new conflict has again cut off energy supplies from the Gulf, US Marines boarded ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
Two oil tankers exploded and burst into flames after passing through an oil rig in the southern strait, Iranian media reported, citing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The US military denied this, saying, “Like many of the IRGC’s claims, this is false.”
Gunmen seized another ship near Yemen, raising concerns about security in the Middle East’s largest oil shipping region at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Iran’s state television quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying until US “aggression” comes to an end, it will be impossible to export chemical fertilizers or even “a single drop of oil and gas” from the region.
Washington and Tehran have been testing escalation limits since their ceasefire agreement collapsed last week, raising the prospect of a return to all-out war.
After reports of the price hike on Friday (US time), Brent crude oil prices rose 3 percent and were on track for a third straight weekly gain, putting political pressure on US President Donald Trump ahead of November’s congressional elections.
Trump has threatened to carry out massive airstrikes against Iran’s infrastructure and has also refused to rule out a ground attack on Iran’s coast or islands. US officials have said the strikes against southern Iran were designed in part to give Trump a choice.
Such measures risk provoking Iran in turn by striking the critical infrastructure of vulnerable Gulf states, or having its allies in Yemen further disrupt the world’s energy supply by attacking ships from the Red Sea.
Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, warned Friday against US escalation or any attempt to seize Iranian territory.
“If the US strikes continue for several more days, we will enter a phase of full-scale attacks,” Rezaei, a former commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards, told state television.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is concerned about the increase, particularly “attacks against civilian infrastructure in Iran and throughout the region”, his spokesman said.
The U.S. Army General Command previously said its targets included “military hardware infrastructure”, the first time it mentioned infrastructure in more than a week.
In the latest attacks, the High Command said it had resumed airstrikes against Iran for the seventh night in a row, with the attacks about 5am on Saturday (AEST), around 10:30am on Friday in Tehran.
“The attacks are designed to further degrade Iran’s military capabilities at the direction of the Commander-in-Chief,” the statement on X said.
Shortly thereafter, Iranian media reported explosions were heard or strikes were carried out in Sirik, Ahvaz and Yazd. Iran’s Mehr news agency said no casualties were reported from enemy shelling outside Yazd, a central city 600 kilometers south of Tehran.
Iranian state media earlier said at least five bridges were hit in the south. Seven people were reported killed in attacks on bridges in the southern port of Bandar Khamir, where a train station was also hit. An airport was reportedly hit further east and off the coast in Iranshahr, in a province bordering Pakistan.
Videos verified by Reuters showed debris, broken railings and a damaged car on the broken bridge in Bandar Khamir. One clip showed a fire.
Iran announced attacks on Gulf countries hosting US air bases, including Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, as well as a US ship in the northern Indian Ocean. The Revolutionary Guard has said it attacked a US drone warehouse in Bahrain and destroyed Bahrain’s main intelligence center with missiles and drones.
Iran’s navy fired a surface-to-sea missile at what it called a US warship in the northern Indian Ocean, state news agency IRNA reported on Friday. Iran’s military said the missile launch caused “fear and panic” and forced the ship to move out of the Iranian navy’s range.
The authorities in Kuwait have said that one power generation and desalination plant in the country has been hit by an Iranian attack, causing damage, fire and outages to many power generating units.
The wealthy Arab Gulf states rely on plants that generate electricity and remove salt from seawater to make their desert cities habitable. When Iran struck a Kuwaiti desalination plant on March 30, it was seen as a major escalation.
Last month’s tentative agreement to end the war has collapsed since July 7, when Iran rammed ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the United States responded with airstrikes. Iran has since announced the closure of the sea channel, and Washington has reinstated its blockade of Iranian ports.
Reuters
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