US-Iran strikes widen as Strait of Hormuz battle hits Kuwait infrastructure

The United States and Iran traded fresh strikes on military and infrastructure targets as fighting around the Strait of Hormuz escalated. The attacks hit vital facilities in Kuwait and Iran, underscoring the regional risks and growing pressure on shipping and energy supplies.

In Short

• US strikes targeted surveillance, logistics, weapons storage and maritime facilities overnight
• Iranian attacks damaged Kuwaiti oil and water facilities, causing fires and injuries
• Kuwait briefly closed airspace, while flights were rescheduled amid missile threats

The United States and Iran exchanged fresh strikes on Saturday, with attacks targeting infrastructure and military sites as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz intensified. The latest round came after days of back-and-forth attacks in a conflict that has increasingly centred on control of the key waterway, with no clear end in sight after the collapse of an interim ceasefire.

The US Central Command said its seventh straight night of strikes hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities”. Iran, meanwhile, launched attacks across the region, with the most serious damage reported in Kuwait, where authorities said a water desalination plant and an oil facility were struck.

Kuwait authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation did not disclose the locations of the facilities. The strikes injured several people at the oil facility and caused a fire at the desalination plant, forcing several power generation units offline. It was the second attack on a desalination plant in two days in Kuwait, which depends on desalination for 90 per cent of its drinking water. The Kuwait Fire Force said several firefighters and a worker were also injured while tackling two other blazes caused by Iranian strikes. Kuwait briefly shut its airspace in the morning because of missile threats, and Kuwait Airways said most flights to and from the capital were being rescheduled.

Elsewhere in the region, Iraq said it shot down attack drones over Irbil. Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said the country’s air defence systems had brought down Iranian missiles, while Bahrain reported air raid sirens sounding several times. Iranian officials have said recent US strikes have killed dozens and wounded hundreds in Iran, while the US military said several more American service members had also been injured.

In Iran, state television reported that US airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Bonji, a coastal village in Hormozgan province on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s state-run news agency said overnight strikes also damaged two tunnels and a bridge, disrupting one of the main highways towards Bandar Abbas, near the narrowest part of the strait. Iran reported strikes on Qeshm Island as well. A day earlier, Iranian state media had said the US hit highways and railway bridges apparently to cut off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from routes leading inland towards Tehran. Iran’s Energy Ministry on Friday acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” for the first time during the US airstrike campaign and urged people in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat” to use less electricity. Iranian authorities said at least 50 people had been killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes over the past three weeks, including eight people killed in a bridge strike on Friday.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday stepped up its warning that countries hosting US forces should be “prepared to receive a corresponding response”, according to Iran’s state TV, as pro-Iranian protesters continued nightly demonstrations in the capital. US officials said 13 more service members — 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors — had been injured since Monday, without providing details. Since the war began, 14 US service members have been killed and 427 wounded.

The fighting has sharpened the contest over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively closed to shipping traffic after the war began on February 28. Iran has said the strait must be under its sole control and that vessels should pay fees to Tehran, even though it has long been treated internationally as an open waterway. Crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low of eight vessels on Thursday, according to MarineTraffic.com, while oil prices rose above USD 86 a barrel on Friday, close to a one-month high, according to an international shipping tracker.

In an address to the American public on Thursday evening, President Donald Trump said, “We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly.” Before the war, the US had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear programme, but Trump is now facing political pressure to end the conflict and avoid a prolonged Middle East war. For now, the latest exchanges underlined that the battle over the Strait of Hormuz remains at the centre of the wider conflict, with attacks continuing to hit military targets, key infrastructure and vital regional facilities.

With PTI Inputs

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