By Jana Choukeir, Enas Alashray, Ahmed Tolba and Menna AlaaElDin
DUBAI/CAIRO, July 18 (Reuters) – Iran launched renewed attacks on U.S. Gulf allies on Saturday after a seventh straight night of U.S. strikes targeting Iranian military sites including logistics infrastructure, escalating the war one week after a fragile ceasefire agreement fell apart.
Both sides also took aim at shipping traffic, with the U.S. saying it was enforcing a naval blockade while Iran said it targeted vessels that violated its rules on navigating the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Oil prices climbed more than 4% on Friday to their highest level in more than a month, applying political pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump as his Republican Party tries to hold on to power in November congressional elections.
Washington and Tehran have been testing the limits of escalation since their ceasefire agreement collapsed last week, raising the prospect of a return to all-out war.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it concluded its latest round of attacks by hitting surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage and maritime capabilities.
“U.S. forces employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets,” Central Command said in a statement. “More than 50,000 American service members are operating across the Middle East and remain vigilant, lethal, and ready.”
Iranian media reported on Saturday that several missiles struck power facilities and desalination pumps in the southern Iranian city of Jask, citing a local official. The official said drinking water had been cut off in villages in Jask due to the attack.
The U.S. said its forces redirected four commercial vessels, disabled one, and boarded another to enforce its naval blockade of Iran.
In turn Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said four vessels violating its rules on shipping traffic were stopped from going through the strait with a combined missile and drone operation.
In addition, Iranian media, citing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, reported that two oil tankers exploded and caught fire after passing through a mined route south of the strait. The U.S. military labelled that report as false.
Armed men seized another vessel off Yemen, raising concern over security in the Middle East’s other big choke point for oil shipments at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Iran’s state television quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying that until U.S. “aggression” comes to an end, it will not be possible to export chemical fertilizers or even a “single drop of oil and gas” from the region.
Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, warned on Friday against U.S. escalation or any attempt to seize Iranian territory.
CONCERN OVER INFRASTRUCTURE
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was concerned about the escalation, particularly “attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region,” his spokesperson said.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said its targets included “military logistics infrastructure”, the first time it mentioned infrastructure in more than a week.
Iranian media reported enemy strikes early on Saturday in coastal Hormozgan Province on the Iranian side of the Strait of Hormuz. State TV said three people were killed and eight wounded while two bridges and a road tunnel were damaged.
Iranian media reported explosions heard or strikes carried out in Sirik, Ahvaz, Yazd, Jask and Khorramabad late Friday or early Saturday.
On Friday, Iranian state media said at least five bridges were struck in the south in U.S. attacks. 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 reported hit further east and away from the coast in Iranshahr, in a province bordering Pakistan.
Trump has threatened to launch broad-based air strikes on Iran’s infrastructure and has also declined to rule out a ground assault on Iran’s coast or islands. U.S. officials have said attacks on southern Iran are designed in part to give Trump options.
Such moves risk provoking Iran to attack the vital infrastructure of vulnerable Gulf states, or having its allies in Yemen further disrupt global energy supplies by attacking shipping from the Red Sea.
Iran announced attacks on Gulf countries that host U.S. airbases, including Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan, in addition to a U.S. vessel in the northern Indian Ocean. Saudi Arabia’s civil defence issued early warnings, the first in several months, in at least two places but had yet to report any damage. Earlier in the war, Iran hit some of the oil-rich kingdom’s energy facilities.
Authorities in Kuwait said one of the country’s power generation and water desalination stations had been hit in an Iranian attack, causing damage, a fire and the disruption of a large number of electricity generation units.
The Kuwaiti army later said it was responding to Iranian drone attacks.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it attacked a depot of U.S. drones in Bahrain and destroyed Bahrain’s main artificial intelligence centre with ballistic missiles and drones.
State news agency IRNA reported the Iranian navy fired a shore-to-sea cruise missile towards what it called a hostile U.S. vessel in the northern Indian Ocean. Iran’s army said the missile launch caused “fear and panic” and forced the vessel to move out of range of Iran’s navy.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Stephen Coates)
