By Jana Choukeir and Eman Abouhassira
DUBAI, July 18 (Reuters) – 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 it had struck a U.S. military support centre at Camp Arifjan and destroyed a radar facility at Ali Al Salem Air Base. 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.
‘SAVAGERY OF THE U.S. MILITARY’
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’s Health Ministry said on Saturday that 50 people had been killed and more than 500 injured in U.S. strikes on the country over the past three weeks.
U.S. airstrikes early on Saturday killed three people and wounded eight others in the southern Hormozgan province, which borders the Strait of Hormuz, while two bridges and a road tunnel were damaged, state TV reported.
The U.S. carried out further airstrikes in the same province on Saturday afternoon, the semi-official Fars news agency said, quoting provincial authorities, but there were no reports of civilian casualties.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei accused the United States of seeking control over the strait, a vital waterway which usually handles around one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Earlier, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it had completed its seventh consecutive day of strikes by hitting Iranian surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage and maritime capabilities.
IRANIAN STRIKES REPORTED IN BAHRAIN, JORDAN, SAUDI ARABIA
As well as hitting Kuwait, the IRGC targeted a site in Bahrain where U.S. combat aircraft were gathered at Sheikh Isa Air Base and an intelligence data centre, Iranian media said.
The Guards 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.
Saudi Arabia’s early warning system issued alerts early on Saturday urging residents of Al-Kharj and Yanbu to seek shelter. Al-Kharj, east of Riyadh, is home to a military base that hosts U.S. troops, while Yanbu, on the Red Sea, has a key oil export terminal.
Two people briefed on the matter said an Iranian missile attack, the first on Saudi Arabia in more than three months, had triggered the alerts. Saudi state media did not say what had prompted the alerts and the government media office did not respond to a request for comment.
The IRGC made no mention of any attack on Saudi Arabia.
OIL PRICES CLIMB
Oil prices rose more than 4% on Friday to their highest level in more than a month, adding to political pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump as his Republican Party tries to hold on to power in November congressional elections.
Washington and Tehran have been testing the limits of escalation since their ceasefire agreement fell apart last week, raising the prospect of a return to all-out war.
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.
Iranian media reported that several missiles had 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. The governor of Jask later said emergency water deliveries had begun to the affected villages.
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. officials have said the strikes on southern Iran are designed partly to provide options for Trump, who has also declined to rule out a ground assault on Iran’s coast or islands.
The attacks risk provoking Iran to mount further strikes on the vital infrastructure of Gulf states, or renewed efforts by Tehran’s allies in Yemen to disrupt global energy supplies by targeting Red Sea shipping.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Stephen Coates and Gareth Jones; Editing by Sam Holmes, Alison Williams, Ros Russell)
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