Iran and the United States expanded their fighting overnight into Friday, as the U.S. military struck bridges, rail lines and a maritime observation tower, according to videos and Iranian state media. Iran said it had retaliated by firing on other countries in the region that host U.S. military bases, and Kuwait said that power and water plants had been hit.
President Trump declared a cease-fire agreement with Iran “over” more than a week ago. Since then, U.S. and Iranian forces have carried out daily attacks, and Mr. Trump has threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure to try to force Iran to make a deal that would permanently end the war and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials have warned that they would retaliate by targeting civilian infrastructure in nearby countries.
Infrastructure that civilians rely on to survive, like water treatment plants, are generally not considered legitimate military targets, and striking them could be considered a war crime, legal scholars say. But strikes on railroads and bridges may well have a military purpose, if they transport troops or weapons.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said in a statement that its latest round of strikes had “hit dozens of Iranian military targets such as coastal surveillance and air defense sites, military logistics infrastructure and maritime capabilities.” It did not directly address Iranian claims that bridges and railroads had been hit.
Central Command said that it also had destroyed a port surveillance tower in southern Iran that, it said, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had used to track and target commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state media confirmed that the port tower had been struck and said that U.S. forces had also hit bridges, as well as railways and roads that connect the southern Iranian coast to the rest of the country. A video verified by The New York Times showed a vehicle burning in the crater of two destroyed bridges in Hormozgan province, in southern Iran.
U.S. strikes also hit a railway station near a naval base in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, which has been repeatedly targeted by U.S. military attacks, Iran’s state broadcaster said.
Marzieh, a teacher in Bandar Abbas, said in an interview that airstrikes there in recent days had largely hit an airport and air force facilities, as well as an area where docks and naval forces are located. Fishing boats were also destroyed, she said.
“The ground was shaking,” said the teacher, who spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first name out of fear of government reprisal. “It is truly terrifying.”
Eight people were killed and 20 others wounded in U.S. attacks across Iran on Thursday night and Friday morning, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said.
The Iranian military said it had retaliated by firing on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Syria and Qatar.
Kuwait said that a power plant and a water desalination plant had been hit, igniting fires and damaging several generators. The Kuwaiti army said that Iranian drone strikes on military facilities overnight had also injured several military personnel. The army posted pictures of the Kuwaiti defense minister visiting the injured personnel in a hospital.
In Iraq, an Iranian drone strike that targeted Kurdish fighters killed nine new recruits, according to a Kurdish group, the Komala party. Three other people were injured in the strike on the Kurdish camp, the party said in a statement. Iranian Kurdish strongholds near the Iraqi border with Iran have come under repeated attack since the start of the war in late February.
The fighting has all but shut down maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a major conduit for the global oil and gas trade. Only eight ships passed through the strait on Thursday, compared to the more than 130 ships that navigated the waterway each day before the war. Oil prices have remained high as the war has dragged on with few public signs of diplomacy.
On Friday, a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was struck by a projectile, according to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a monitoring agency run by the British Navy. The ship reported minor damage, and no crew members were harmed, the agency said.
Tasnim, an Iranian outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said the Guards Corps had targeted a Thai-flagged vessel that had ignored warnings and tried to transit the strait without Iranian authorization. Iran has repeatedly attacked ships in the strait while asserting control over the waterway.
The U.S. military has said its attacks this week have been intended to weaken Iran’s ability to target commercial vessels. On Tuesday, the U.S. military also reimposed a naval blockade on ships entering and leaving Iranian ports in an effort to squeeze the Iranian economy and pressure Tehran to make a deal.
Reporting was contributed by Michael Levenson, Jenny Gross, Lynsey Chutel, Max Bearak, Yeganeh Torbati, James McManagan, Monika Cvorak and Erika Solomon.
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