US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X that US forces destroyed a surveillance tower at Iran’s Shahid Kalantari Port in Chabahar on July 16, describing it as part of a maritime surveillance network used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) along Iran’s Gulf of Oman coastline.
According to CENTCOM, the surveillance network had been used for decades by the IRGC to monitor commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The US military claimed the strike would degrade the IRGC’s ability to coordinate attacks on civilian merchant ships.
CENTCOM further said the operation was intended to protect freedom of navigation in regional waters, while maintaining what it described as the ongoing US naval blockade against Iran.
Separately, the US military has denied Iran’s claims of killing US soldiers in Syria, according to a CENTCOM post on X.
Iran said it had killed US troops stationed at a base in al-Tanf on the Syria-Jordan border. Syria said there’s been no Iranian attacks on the US base which US forces left in February.
IRGC commander says attacks will continue until calm returns to Hormuz
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Commander Seyed Majid Mousavi said on Friday that the Iranian attacks will continue “until calm returns to the southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuz”, Al Jazeera reported.
“In the system of calculations, the entire territory of Iran — from Tehran to the south — is one and the same. Effective and targeted strikes from across Iran against the enemy will continue until calm returns to the southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuz,” he said in a statement carried by Iranian state TV.
Iran says major roads reopened, traffic restored hours after US strikes
Iran’s Road Maintenance and Transportation Organisation said all major roads across the country remain open and traffic has resumed on sections damaged in overnight US strikes, according to Press TV. In a statement on X, the organisation said road maintenance teams restored traffic on affected routes, including several bridges in southern Iran, within 12 hours of the attacks.
It added that temporary bypasses had been constructed around damaged sections, allowing vehicles to continue using the affected roads. “Despite the enemy’s savage attacks on transportation infrastructure, all road routes across the country remain open and traffic is flowing,” the statement said.
Several military personnel injured in Iranian strikes: Kuwait
The Kuwaiti military said several personnel have been “wounded as a result of enemy drones targeting several facilities and camps affiliated with the Kuwaiti Army this morning, following the heinous Iranian aggression”.
Israel is using US taxpayer dollars to silence any US critics: Iran’s Araghchi
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took a dig at the US government, reiterating the warning of Israeli interference in Washington’s foreign policy and domestic politics.
“Americans are being warned of Foreign Influence. How about the extensive Israeli Campaign to bamboozle the US Administration into an unwinnable war of choice?” Araghchi wrote in a post on X.
Araghchi referred to an article in Time magazine that reported Trump’s former presidential campaign manager, Brad Parscale, running an Israeli influence operation targeting the MAGA base.
“Even worse: Israel is using US taxpayer dollars to silence any US critics,” he wrote. “It will all soon unravel.”
US extends strikes on Iran to bridges and airport in escalation of campaign
The United States escalated its renewed bombing campaign on Iran on Friday by hitting bridges and an airport, and Tehran responded with strikes on US bases across the Middle East.
In the contested Strait of Hormuz, where the renewed conflict has again cut off global energy supplies from the Middle East, US Marines boarded a tanker and another ship was reported to have been hit by a projectile.
The warring sides have been testing the limits of escalation since their ceasefire agreement collapsed last week, raising the prospect of a return to all-out war.
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.
But such moves risk provoking Iran to escalate in turn by hitting the infrastructure of neighbouring countries, or further disrupt energy supplies by having its allies in Yemen attack shipping from the Red Sea.
The US military’s Central Command included “military logistics infrastructure” in the list of targets it said it had struck in its latest attacks on Iran, the first time it has mentioned infrastructure in more than a week.
For now, the attacks appeared to be limited mainly to southern coastal areas that have already been targeted intensively in recent days.
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.
Bahrain air defence intercepts Iranian attacks, Kuwait says desalination plant damaged
Bahrain and Kuwait both reported strikes against their territories on Friday by Iran, with Bahrain saying that their air defences managed to intercept aerial attacks and Kuwait reporting damage on a desalination plant.
One of Kuwait’s power generation and water desalination stations was hit in an Iranian attack, causing damage to facilities, a fire and the disruption of a large number of electricity generation units, Kuwaiti authorities said on Friday.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control, while technical teams began assessing the damage, securing the station and working to restore the affected electricity generation units to service as soon as possible, the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said.
Iran claimed to have destroyed High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) platforms and missiles in attacks on Kuwait at several locations, where Tehran said American forces and Israeli-backed fighters are stationed, according to Al Jazeera.
Iranian attacks eliminated “a large number of anti-revolutionaries and American special forces [and] the tit-for-tat operations are ongoing,” the IRGC said in a statement.
Bahrain’s armed forces said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed “a number of hostile Iranian aerial attacks” today.
“Iran has continued its aggressive approach by carrying out cowardly attacks targeting civilians in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” the military said in a statement.
It also urged everyone to exercise caution, avoid approaching any strange or suspicious objects that may have resulted from the Iranian attack, and report them immediately.
“The General Command stresses that the deliberate use of missiles and drones to target civilians and private property constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” the statement noted.