New US Attacks On Roads, Bridges Reported As Iran Hits Back At Gulf States
by RFE/RL · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · JoinUS strikes on Iran widened early on July 18 from the Strait of Hormuz hotspot to multiple sites throughout central and southern Iran, including through the use of jet fighters, while Iran continued to pound US Gulf allies, as a fragile cease-fire further tattered.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces “launched a round of strikes against Iran...for the seventh consecutive night. The strikes are designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities at the Commander in Chief's direction.”
Some six-and-a-half hours later, 5 a.m. Iran time, CENTCOM said the wave of attacks had been concluded.
CENTCOM said it "hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities. US forces employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets."
The announcements came amid reports that traffic through the crucial Strait of Hormuz had dwindled to almost nothing amid multiple actions by US forces and missile launches by the Iranian side.
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On July 18, Iranian state-run media reported multiple attacks by US forces -- including jet fighters -- along the Strait of Hormuz but also at locations away from the important waterway, including in Yazd in central Iran, the southwestern city of Ahvaz, and Khuzestan Province at the north end of the Persian Gulf.
Iran media reported that “several transportation routes” in areas of Hormozgan Province -- which borders the Strait of Hormuz -- had been blocked by “enemy” attacks on major roads, at least two bridges, and a transport tunnel.
A day earlier, Iranian state media said at least five bridges were struck in the south. Seven people were reported killed in attacks on bridges in the southern port of Bandar Khamir, where the train station was also hit. An airport was reported hit further east and away from the coast in Iranshahr, in a province bordering Pakistan.
Reuters said video that it had verified showed rubble, broken railings, and a damaged vehicle on a smashed bridge in Bandar Khamir. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said three people were killed while crossing the bridge.
CENTCOM did not specify the targets of its attacks and multiple claims by Iran could not be verified.
Iran Threatens 'Full-Scale Offensive Operations'
Meanwhile, Iranian Major General Mohsen Rezaei threatened that Tehran is ready to resume "full-scale offensive operations" if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days.
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Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said, "Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses...and no political border will be safe," according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.
Further intensifying tensions in the region, US-allied Gulf Arab states reported incoming Iranian missiles and drones, with strikes causing some injuries and damages at civilian infrastructure sites.
Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on July 17 that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) navy had "targeted" a Thai-flagged ship trying to get through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran announced attacks on Gulf countries that host US airbases, including Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait, in addition to a US vessel in the northern Indian Ocean.
An X post by the Kuwaiti Army quoted a Defense Ministry spokesman as saying that "the sinful Iranian aggression resulted in the targeting of several facilities and camps affiliated with the Kuwaiti Army using hostile drones, leading to injuries among a number of Kuwaiti Land Force personnel while carrying out their duties."
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"The injured have received the necessary medical care and treatment, and their health condition is stable," it added.
The Kuwaiti Army also said fire broke out and caused damage to power-generation units at an electricity and water desalination plant, although the exact timing of that attack was not immediately clear.
Iran's navy fired a shore-to-sea cruise missile toward what it called a hostile US vessel in the northern Indian Ocean, state news agency IRNA reported.
The navy said the missile launch caused "fear and panic" and forced the vessel to move out of range of Iran's navy.
A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was concerned about the latest escalation, specifically citing “attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region."
Hormuz Passage Rate Dwindles
CENTCOM also said that over the first three days of a renewed blockade of Iranian ports, US forces have redirected four commercial vessels, disabled one, and boarded another to "ensure full compliance" with the blockade.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz -- through which some 20 percent of the world’s crude oil and gas supplies transited prewar -- has almost ground to a halt again following the renewed exchange of attacks, according to data supplier Kpler.
Only eight ships passed through the strait on July 16, the lowest figure in three weeks and down from 15 passages a day earlier and from 48 two weeks ago, Kpler said.
Prewar, more than 100 vessels on average passed through the waterway each day.
New US Attacks On Roads, Bridges Reported As Iran Hits Back At Gulf States
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