• US strikes five bridges in Iran; airport near Pakistan border reportedly hit
• Tehran strikes power, desalination plant in Kuwait
• Qatar claims intercepting missile attack
• Tehran targets US radar station in Oman, fires at Syria for first time in war
• US Marines board tanker near Hormuz; armed men seize another vessel off Yemen
• Houthis say they are ready to follow Mojtaba’s orders
• UN chief terms attacks on infrastructure ‘unacceptable’

DUBAI: The United States struck bridges in Iran, while Tehran responded by hitting a power and desalination plant in Kuwait on Friday, as the two sides risked further escalation by expanding their targets to include infrastructure.

At sea, where the renewed conflict has again cut off energy supplies from the Gulf, US Marines boarded a tanker near the Strait of Hormuz. 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.

Yemen’s Houthi defence minister, Maj Gen Mohammed Al-Atafi, told the country’s Saba news agency that the movement was ready to follow Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Kham­enei’s orders, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported late on Friday that the Revolutionary Guards navy had “targeted” a Thai-flagged ship trying to get through the Strait of Hormuz. It did not give further details.

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.

After reports of the escalation emerged on Friday, benchmark Brent crude oil prices climbed four per cent and were on track for a third consecutive weekly gain. Global share prices fell, with Wall Street opening sharply lower.

US President Donald 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.

US officials have said attacks on southern Iran are designed in part to give Trump options. Such moves risk provoking Iran to escalate in turn by hitting the vital infrastructure of vulnerable neighbouring Arab states or by having its allies in Yemen further disrupt global energy supplies by attacking shipping from the Red Sea.

UN concerned

UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that attacks on civilian infrastructure are “unacceptable”.

“The Secretary General remains deeply concerned by the continuing military escalation between Iran and the United States of America,” spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. “He’s particularly concerned about attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region. Such attacks are unacceptable,” he added.

In the latest strikes, the US military’s Central Command included “military logistics infrastructure” in the list of targets it said it had hit, the first time it has mentioned infrastructure in more than a week.

Iran’s energy ministry urged citizens to reduce their electricity use and switch off air conditioners in peak hours — even as temperatures in some areas soared — after the power grid came under strain from what it said were US strikes on energy facilities.

Iranian state media said at least five bridges had been 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.

Videos verified by Reuters showed rubble, broken railings and a damaged vehicle on a smashed bridge in Bandar Khamir. One clip showed a fire.

Other reports described deadly attacks including one which killed a woman and wounded her child in the port of Bandar Abbas.

Iran announced attacks on Gulf countries that host US airbases, including Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards aerospace force commander Majid Mousavi said “effective and targeted strikes from across Iran against the enemy will continue” until the US ends its operation against Iran’s coastal facilities in the south and around the strait.

Authorities in Kuwait said one of the country’s power generation and water desalination stations had been hit in an Iranian attack, causing damage to facilities, a fire and the disruption of a large number of electricity generation units.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control, while technical teams began assessing the damage, securing the station and working to restore power generation as soon as possible, the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said.

The rich Arab Gulf states depend on plants that produce electricity and remove salt from seawater to make their desert cities habitable. When Iran hit a Kuwaiti desalination plant on March 30, it was seen as a major escalation that helped push the United States to declare the war’s first ceasefire a week later.

Feud over strait

Iran said it had struck US bases in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, and a US radar station in Oman. Explosions were heard in the Qatari capital Doha, where the interior ministry said a child was wounded by shrapnel.

Iran’s Guards said they had targeted US radar systems and military aircraft in Qatar to “punish the aggressor”, with Doha saying it had intercepted a missile attack.

Iran also said it fired at Syria, apparently for the first time in the war, targeting what it described as a US special forces base in Tanf, which Damascus and Washington say US forces vacated earlier this year.

A Syrian military source said the strike hit near the base and caused no damage or casualties. CENTCOM said no US troops were killed or captured.

Last month’s interim agreement to end the war has collapsed since July 7, when Iran struck ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the United States responded with air strikes. Iran has since announced the closure of the strait, and Washington has reimposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

In the latest action at sea, the US military said it had boarded a tanker to enforce the blockade, releasing photos of Marines rappelling down from a helicopter onto the deck where one posed in front of an Iranian flag. Beyond the Gulf, armed assailants boarded and seized a small chemical tanker off Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, close to the mouth of the Red Sea.

One maritime security source said the incident appeared to be related to Somali piracy rather than action by Iran’s Yemeni allies, the Houthis.

But security sources in the Horn of Africa have spoken in the past of concern about the potential for the Houthis to assist, encourage or arm pirates in the area.

Iran earlier signalled that it could prod its Houthi allies in Yemen to close another key strait: the Bab al-Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea, potentially cutting off the main alternative route for Middle East oil bypassing the Gulf.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2026