US launches seventh night of Iran strikes as Hormuz conflict escalates

A screengrab from social media shows a damaged bridge in Bandar Khamir, Hormozgan province, Iran after US airstrikes. Photograph: Social Media/ReutersView image in fullscreenA screengrab from social media shows a damaged bridge in Bandar Khamir, Hormozgan province, Iran after US airstrikes. Photograph: Social Media/ReutersUS launches seventh night of Iran strikes as Hormuz conflict escalatesCentral Command says attacks were designed to ‘continue degrading Iranian military capabilities’The US military said it had launched a seventh consecutive night of strikes on Iran on Friday night as fighting escalated over the strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command, in a post on X, said the strikes, which began at 7pm GMT, were designed to “continue degrading Iranian military capabilities”.Earlier on Friday US airstrikes hit bridges in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state TV reported. The bridges were a key transit point for Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port.

Further US airstrikes brought down a tower in Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman that the US military claimed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) used to facilitate attacks on vessels in the strait of Hormuz. The US also targeted key electrical infrastructure and Iranshahr airport.Iran proves it can still inflict damage despite waves of US attacks Read moreIran’s energy ministry told citizens to reduce their use of electricity and air conditioning after the power grid came under strain due to US strikes on energy facilities.

The ministry said areas in the south were experiencing “extreme heat and attacks on power infrastructure” as temperatures soared.Strikes on civilian infrastructure not being used for military purposes could constitute a war crime, human rights experts have said.Renewed US strikes had killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 400 in Iran by Friday morning, said a spokesperson for Iran’s health ministry, Hossein Kermanpour.

The attacks appeared to be the follow-through of Donald Trump’s promise to expand strikes against Iran, including the targeting of infrastructure and power plants. The US president reportedly met senior department heads this week to discuss an expanded aerial campaign to force Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz.The current round of fighting has entered its seventh day and further undermined the interim deal between Iran and the US, which was meant to keep the strait open and give room for negotiations to lead to a permanent truce.

Iran has shut the strait and the US reimposed its blockade of Iranian ports and ships on Wednesday.View image in fullscreenUS marines landed on the M/T Wen Yao in the Gulf of Oman in an exercise to enforce the naval blockade. Photograph: US Marine Corps/AFP/Getty ImagesAfter the US strikes on Friday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened a “devastating price” for countries hosting US bases if American attacks against infrastructure continued.

“The American enemy and the hosts of its bases in the region should know that crossing red lines and attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure will have a very severe and devastating price to pay,” the IRGC said in a statement.The Iranian military responded to US strikes by targeting Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman and Qatar. Qatar, one of the mediators between the US and Iran, had been mostly spared from Iranian retaliation in the recent rounds of violence.

Qatari authorities said falling debris wounded a child as air defences intercepted missiles.In Kuwait, authorities said Iranian strikes hit a power and desalination plant, damaging the water facility. The country relies on desalinated water for about 90% of its drinking water.

Officials said they were working to assess the damage and get the plant running again.The renewed fighting has focused on the strait of Hormuz, which handled about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply before the war. Though the memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran last month said the strait should be open to traffic, both sides interpreted the deal differently.

View image in fullscreenUS forces boarding the M/T Wen Yao in the Gulf of Oman. Photograph: x.com/CentcomWashington and Tehran advanced competing plans for ships to transit the strait, with Iran attacking some ships that took the US route.

Shipping in the waterway has been drastically reduced over the last few days as violence escalated, though most ships that continued to transit used the Iranian route.Iran’s ⁠Tasnim news agency later cited ⁠an informed ⁠source as ​saying that ⁠a Thai-flagged ship was targeted in ⁠the ​Sstrait ‌of ‌Hormuz on Friday ‌after it allegedly ignored warnings and attempted to ‌pass without permission from ​Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy.Iranian state media also said the US struck an oil tanker which was empty and docked at Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal on the strait.

American forces boarded a ship in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday as part of the renewed