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Desalination plant hit in Kuwait as US launches seventh night of strikes on Iran
Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday that US attacks killed three people and wounded eight in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan.
- PUBLISHED: Sat 18 Jul 2026, 11:42 AM
- By:
- AFP
[Editor's Note: For the latest updates on how US-Iran hostilities have escalated since a 14-point deal was signed on June 12, follow the Khaleej Times live blog.]
Bombing intensified in the region for the seventh consecutive night, with Iran threatening a 'full-scale offensive' in response to American strikes and hitting several sites in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.
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Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that two oil tankers directed by "deceptive American intelligence agencies" exploded after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz, which the US military quickly denied.
The Revolutionary Guards also said on state television they "stopped" four ships trying to transit the critical waterway.
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Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said Tehran will resume "full-scale offensive operations" if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days.
"Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses... and no political border will be safe," Rezaei said, according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.
US forces reported striking Iran with attacks designed to "continue degrading Iranian military capabilities", according to a statement on X by US Central Command.
In the biggest escalation since the foes resumed hostilities, Iran accused US forces of targeting civilian infrastructure, including an airport, a railway station and two bridges, and said it had struck US assets across the region.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to hit Iranian infrastructure, but there was no confirmation from the US side on Friday that US forces have begun to do so.
The war began on February 28 with deadly US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping channel for much of the world's oil.
Traffic in the Hormuz Strait hit a three-week low on Thursday, according to maritime trackers Kpler and MarineTraffic.
Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday that US attacks killed three people and wounded eight in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan.
Iran's army said it targeted multiple sites in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.
'Punish the aggressor'
Iranian authorities said the supply of drinking water to several villages in the south had been cut off, accusing the US of launching missiles that "struck the power facilities and desalination plant pumps located at the Bonji village pier", according to the Tasnim news agency.
Iran's energy ministry urged citizens to reduce electricity use and switch off air conditioners in peak hours, even as temperatures in some areas soared, after the power grid came under strain from what it said were US strikes.
Iran's military had threatened infrastructure across the region in the event of any attacks on its own networks and launched widespread strikes on Friday.
Calls to resume talks
In Iraq's Kurdistan region, drone and rocket strikes killed nine members of an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group on Friday, the exiled Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan said, blaming the attack on Iran.
Iran's health ministry said at least 38 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded in the country since fighting resumed.
Mediators have attempted to bring both sides back to the negotiating table, and China and Pakistan called for the US and Iran to stop fighting and resume talks.
The US has also reimposed its blockade of Iran's ports as part of the wider escalation, and attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz have continued.