US strikes bridges and collapses tower at key port as Iran campaign expands

The US has expanded its air strike campaign against Iran by hitting more bridges, electrical equipment and collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port.

The assault early on Friday is part of US president Donald Trump’s threats to start striking infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

In response, Iran has launched new missile attacks against US-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the war.

It also damaged a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait – crucial infrastructure in the small desert nation.

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The interim ceasefire that was agreed to last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the US and Iran as they battle for control of the strait.

Iranian officials say American strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of others, with new casualties reported in Friday’s strikes.

When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Speaking in a primetime address to the American public, Mr Trump insisted the war was going well.

“We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly,” Mr Trump said.

The US strikes hit bridges in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.

The road and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from roads leading into the Islamic Republic’s central region onward to Tehran, the capital.

While other routes still are open, the US strikes could expand further, potentially disrupting both the movement of military materiel and goods needed for Iran’s 90 million people.

Iran also acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the US air strike campaign for the first time on Friday when its energy ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces.

It said those areas “are currently experiencing extreme heat and attacks on power infrastructure”.

Such strikes on power infrastructure had been suspected for days. Tehran city councilman Mehdi Chamran told journalists asking about electrical problems on Tuesday: “Just look at how many power facilities they hit … and you wouldn’t be asking that question.”

The US military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest air strikes, which concluded at dawn on Friday, the sixth night in a row of American attacks.

The strikes also collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighbouring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Chabahar port, which Iran had been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American strikes.

Iranian state media acknowledged a third round of strikes on the facility, without immediately acknowledging the tower’s collapse.

Iran described the tower as overseeing commercial traffic into the port. However, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also operates at ports across the country.

As of 6am local time on Friday, the US strikes had killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 400 in Iran, health ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.

On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defences fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s interior ministry said falling debris injured a child.

Qatar, along with Pakistan, is a key mediator in trying to reach an end to the Iran war. But talks have broken down over Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday. In Kuwait, authorities said Iran attacked a power and water desalination plant, causing widespread damage to the station. About 90% of drinking water comes from desalination – and any disruption can threaten life.

Kuwait said it extinguished the blaze and was working to assess the damage and get the station working again.

Jordan’s military said it intercepted three incoming missiles Friday morning launched by Iran.

Explosions also could be heard on Friday morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region as air defences targeted incoming fire. The attack apparently targeted the Iranian Kurdish dissident group Komala, killing at least nine people and wounding others, officials said.

Also on Friday, a tanker came under attack traveling through the Strait of Hormuz taking the route closest to Oman, the UK military said.

The report from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said the ship sustained minor damage without any of its crew being injured.

Iran has been attacking tankers travelling on the route near Oman, but did not immediately acknowledge any attack.

Mr Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime.

The US also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

Week-to-week cargo shipments through the strait dropped by almost a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. And that was before the recent surge in violence.

Given the risks, some oil shippers are transiting the strait with their location devices turned off, but many are just staying put, Lloyd’s said.

A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.