Tensions escalate as Iran and U.S. continue to exchange strikes

Tensions escalate as Iran and U.S. continue to exchange strikes

Latest wave of attacks reportedly damaged civilian infrastructure

Iran launched more attacks on Washington's Gulf allies and Jordan on Saturday after a seventh straight night of U.S. strikes on Iranian military targets, escalating the war one week after a ceasefire collapsed.

Kuwait came under sustained attack, with a desalination plant hit and operations at Kuwait International Airport suspended due to repeated missile and drone threats.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said they struck a U.S. military support centre at Camp Arifjan and destroyed a radar facility at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation later said one of its oil facilities had been hit in "repeated Iranian attacks," causing significant damage and some injuries, according to the state news agency.

Kuwait's armed forces said they had intercepted Iranian ballistic missiles and drones early on Saturday, adding that a number of firefighters and oil sector workers had been injured while responding to the attacks.

Iran says U.S. struck civilian infrastructure in 6th night of strikes

Iran was responding to U.S. attacks on bridges, power facilities and other infrastructure.

"Since there is no international institution to prevent the savagery of the U.S. military, we have no path before us except the Quranic command: ‘Whoever attacks you, attack them in the same manner,'" the IRGC said in a statement warning U.S. allies in the region to expect more strikes.

Iran targets Gulf countries after intense U.S. strikes

Iran's Health Ministry said on Saturday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 injured in U.S. strikes over the past three weeks, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported.

The IRGC targeted a site in Bahrain where U.S. combat aircraft were gathered at Sheikh Isa Air Base and an intelligence data center, Iranian state media reported.

The Guards said they had also destroyed at least two U.S. fighter aircraft and three other aircraft during a missile and drone attack early on Saturday on the U.S. base in Al Azraq, Jordan, according to Iranian state TV.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Oil prices soar to highest in a month

On Friday, both sides took aim at shipping traffic, with the U.S. saying it was enforcing a naval blockade while Iran said it targeted vessels that violated its rules on navigating the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for one-fifth of the world's oil supply.

Oil prices climbed more than four per cent on Friday to their highest level in more than a month, applying political pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump as his Republican Party tries to maintain power in November's congressional elections.

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.

Civilian infrastructure was increasingly being subjected to attack despite concerns about potential war crimes.

Iranian media reported that several missiles struck power facilities and desalination pumps in the southern city of Jask on Saturday, citing a local official. Some 10,000 people in 20 villages were without water, Tasnim news agency reported.

A power generation and water desalination plant in Kuwait was hit in an Iranian attack, the country's Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy Ministry said in a statement. It was the second attack on Kuwaiti water desalination sites in two days.

U.S. and Iran each target infrastructure in latest strikes of war

The U.S. military's Central Command said earlier it concluded its seventh consecutive day of strikes by hitting Iranian surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage and maritime capabilities.

UN's Guterres concerned about civilian infrastructure

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was concerned about escalation in the conflict, particularly "attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region," his spokesperson said on Friday.

Iranian media reported strikes early on Saturday in Hormozgan province on the Strait of Hormuz. State TV said three people were killed and eight wounded while two bridges and a road tunnel were damaged.

2 Canadian freight ships stuck in Strait of Hormuz for months

A day earlier, Iranian state media said U.S. strikes hit at least five bridges in the south. Seven people were reported killed in attacks on bridges in the southern port of Bandar Khamir, where a train station was also hit. An airport was reportedly hit further east in Iranshahr.

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. U.S. officials have said attacks on southern Iran are designed in part to give Trump options.

Such moves risk provoking Iran to attack the vital infrastructure of vulnerable Gulf states or having its allies in Yemen further disrupt global energy supplies by attacking shipping from the Red Sea.