US, Iran Exchange Strikes As Conflict Escalates

 

The United States and Iran traded drone and missile strikes on Friday, as Tehran announced it had targeted American assets across the region, in the biggest escalation since the two foes returned to outright war.

A month after the two sides agreed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending their conflict, Iran accused US forces of hitting civilian infrastructure, including an airport, a railway station and two bridges.

Iranian state media reported at least eight people dead and 20 wounded.

It signalled an apparent expansion of American strikes with a focus on Iranian infrastructure, which US President Donald Trump has previously threatened to hit, but there was no immediate comment from US officials.

The war began on February 28 with deadly US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz and launching attacks on Israel and American interests across the Gulf.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards aerospace force commander Majid Mousavi said “effective and targeted strikes from across Iran against the enemy will continue” until the US ends its operation against Iran’s coastal facilities in the south and around the strait.

Iran’s energy ministry urged citizens to reduce their 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 on energy facilities.

Iran’s military had threatened infrastructure across the region in the event of any attacks on its own, and on Friday launched widespread strikes in what appeared to be the largest exchange of fire since the deal was signed last month.

‘Punish the aggressor’

In Kuwait, where Tehran said it had targeted US military sites on Friday, the electricity ministry said an Iranian attack damaged a power and water plant and urged users to ration electricity consumption.

The Kuwaiti military said several troops had been wounded when Iranian drones targeted a number of its bases and camps.

Iran’s Guards said they had targeted US radar systems and military aircraft in Qatar to “punish the aggressor”, with Doha saying it had intercepted a missile attack.

Abu Baker, a Sudanese resident of Qatar, said he had been about to go to sleep when he heard the air alerts, hoping the interception would be out at sea.

“Then it hit and it shook my house,” he added. “I am worried that this war will drag on… but thank God we’re in a country that protects us.”

Iran’s Guards also said they had attacked two US radar sites in Oman as well as the Al-Tanf military base in Syria. A Syrian military source denied there had been such an attack and US forces said they had withdrawn from the base earlier this year.

Jordan’s military said it shot down three Iranian missiles, while Kurdish forces in Iraq said the US-led coalition there shot down several drones over Erbil.

Strikes in Iraq’s Kurdistan region also killed nine members of an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group, the exiled party said, blaming the attack on Iran.

The region’s presidency condemned the attacks as “a serious escalation and a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”.

In Bahrain, Tehran targeted US helicopters and planes at an airbase, Iranian state media reported, with the island nation urging citizens to take shelter.

Calls to resume talks

The battle over the strategic Strait of Hormuz has rekindled the war, with Tehran and Washington trading fire for six days running.

Iran’s health ministry said at least 38 people had been killed and more than 400 injured in the country since fighting resumed.

Tehran claims control over Hormuz, a key shipping route for the global oil and gas trade that was open for free passage before the war.

Mediators have attempted to bring both sides back to the negotiating table and China and Pakistan’s foreign ministers called for the US and Iran to stop fighting and resume talks.

As part of the wider escalation, the US has also reimposed its blockade of Iran’s ports.

Attacks on ships in the waterway have continued, with the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency on Friday saying a tanker was struck by a projectile off the coast of Oman overnight.

Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said that in the latest round of fighting, Washington’s “apparent objective is more specific: to weaken and ultimately remove Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz”.

 

AFP

The post US, Iran Exchange Strikes As Conflict Escalates appeared first on Channels Television.