US strikes bridges in Iran, which targets a water desalination plant in Kuwait
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The U.S. military said early Friday that it had ended its latest round of airstrikes targeting Iran, the sixth night in a row of strikes on the Islamic Republic, as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz intensifies
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American forces have redirected three commercial vessels attempting to breach the blockade, disabled one vessel that did not comply, and boarded another to ensure full adherence to the ongoing U.S. naval blockade against Iran
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Two men wade in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz with vessels anchored in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA
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A woman flashes a victory sign while walking at Tehran’s traditional main bazaar, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
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People walk around Tehran’s traditional main bazaar, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
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A man waves an Iranian flag beneath a billboard reading in English, “Who is D nexT one?” and “#lindseygraham,” referring to late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and using the capital letters “D” and “T” in an apparent play on the initials of U.S. President Donald Trump, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
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The U.S. military said early Friday that it had ended its latest round of airstrikes targeting Iran, the sixth night in a row of strikes on the Islamic Republic, as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz intensifies
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American forces have redirected three commercial vessels attempting to breach the blockade, disabled one vessel that did not comply, and boarded another to ensure full adherence to the ongoing U.S. naval blockade against Iran
3 of 6 |
Two men wade in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz with vessels anchored in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA
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Two men wade in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz with vessels anchored in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA
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A woman flashes a victory sign while walking at Tehran’s traditional main bazaar, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
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A woman flashes a victory sign while walking at Tehran’s traditional main bazaar, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
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People walk around Tehran’s traditional main bazaar, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
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People walk around Tehran’s traditional main bazaar, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
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A man waves an Iranian flag beneath a billboard reading in English, “Who is D nexT one?” and “#lindseygraham,” referring to late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and using the capital letters “D” and “T” in an apparent play on the initials of U.S. President Donald Trump, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
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A man waves an Iranian flag beneath a billboard reading in English, “Who is D nexT one?” and “#lindseygraham,” referring to late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and using the capital letters “D” and “T” in an apparent play on the initials of U.S. President Donald Trump, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, July 16, 2026. /Vahid Salemi)
By
JON GAMBRELL
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States expanded its attacks against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges and energy sites and collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port, backing up President Donald Trump’s threats to target infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz
Iran launched missiles into U.S.-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a mediator in the war, and Kuwait, where one of the desert nation’s water desalination plants was damaged
The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed — though efforts remain to salvage it — and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait vital to world energy supplies
Iranian officials say recent U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds, with new casualties reported Friday
When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 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. Crossings through the strait have fallen to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker, and the price of oil rose Friday above $86 a barrel, close to its highest level in a month
In an address to the American public on Thursday, Trump insisted the war was going well. “We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” he said
Before the war began, the U.S. had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Trump now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against
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Bridges and ‘electrical infrastructure’ hit in Iran
The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday 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 highway 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 U.S. strikes could expand further, potentially disrupting both the movement of military materiel and goods needed for Iran’s 90 million people
Iran acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the U.S. airstrike campaign for the first time Friday when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat.” The ministry did not say whether it was power plants, transmission lines or other equipment that had been attacked
Tower at key port collapses in US strike
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, after the sixth night in a row of American attacks
The strikes collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighboring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported and the U.S. military later confirmed
Chabahar port, which Iran had been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American airstrikes
Iran said the tower oversees commercial traffic into the port. But Central Command said it was part of a maritime surveillance network used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to “track and target” commercial vessels in the strait
“The destruction of the tower directly degrades (the paramilitary’s) ability to coordinate attacks on innocent civilian crew members,” Central Command said in a social media post Friday morning
As of 6 a.m. Friday, the U.S. strikes had killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 400 in Iran, Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said
Iran retaliates by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war
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 defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child
Qatar, along with Pakistan, is a key mediator in trying to reach an end to the Iran war
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 the country’s drinking water comes from desalination
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 Friday morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region as air defenses targeted incoming fire. The attack apparently targeted the Iranian Kurdish dissident group Komala, killing at least nine people and wounding others, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons
Iran did not immediately claim the attack but has targeted Komala in the past
Also on Friday, a tanker came under attack traveling through the Strait of Hormuz taking the route closest to Oman, the British military said
The report from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship sustained minor damage without any of its crew being injured
Iran did not immediately acknowledge any attack. In recent days, it has openly targeted ships using the route, which is overseen by the U.S. military and intended to be outside of Tehran’s control
Strikes come as Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz
Iran has said the strait must be under its sole control and that vessels should pay fees to Tehran — even though the world for decades has considered it an international waterway
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 U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil
Crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low of just eight vessels on Thursday It said seven of the vessels used a route operated by Iran and none used the route closest to Oman
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
Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Annika Wolters in Rayong, Thailand, and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report
JON GAMBRELL
