US strikes bridges and collapses a tower at a key port as its Iran campaign expands
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Jordan’s military said Friday it intercepted three missiles from Iran.
The Jordanian military made the statement to the kingdom’s state-run Petra news agency. It was stated that there was no immediate loss of life in the attack.
Jordan, which hosts US troops and aircraft, has been repeatedly targeted by Iran as it retaliates for an expanding American airstrike campaign.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Below is AP’s earlier story.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. expands airstrike campaign Iranian It hit more bridges and destroyed a tower at a key Iranian port early Friday, part of a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to launch infrastructure attacks to pressure Tehran to ease its grip on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has launched new missile attacks against US allies in the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the war.
Temporary ceasefire reached last month crashedThe region endured days of mutual attacks by the United States and Iran as they fought for control. throat. Iranian officials say the US strikes have killed dozens of people and injured hundreds more, with new casualties reported in Friday’s attacks.
When the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to ship traffic. oil price is rising It gave Iran a huge advantage in negotiations.
Speaking in his first speech to the American public, Trump insisted that the war was going well.
“We’re making just as big a profit in Iran, and you’ll see the fruits of that labor very, very soon,” Trump said.
Bridges and port towers were hit in Iran
Iranian state television reported that at least seven people were killed in a US airstrike on bridges in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province on Friday. The attacks hit the Iranian city of Bandar Khamir on the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in the latest airstrikes that ended at dawn on Friday, the sixth night of a series of American strikes.
The attacks also caused the collapse of a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked neighbor Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared the image of the watchtower collapsing as part of the effort to maintain American control over the strait. This image was spread through activists on social media before Hegseth’s post.
Chabahar port, operated by Iran with the support of India, has been the target of American air strikes many times. Iranian state media confirmed a third round of attacks on the facility, without immediately acknowledging the tower’s collapse.
Iran stated that the tower will monitor commercial traffic to the port. But Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also operates in ports across the country.
Iran retaliated by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war
On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as Iranian missiles targeted the country. People heard explosions overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said falling debris injured a child.
Qatar is a key mediator, along with Pakistan, in ending the Iran war. However, negotiations regarding Iran taking control of the Strait of Hormuz ended in failure.
Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday.
On Friday morning, explosions were also heard in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Northern Iraq as air defenses targeted incoming fire. There was no immediate word on any damage.
The attacks come as Iran and the United States compete for the Strait of Hormuz
Trump has in recent days returned to threats to target Iranian power plants and bridges in an attempt to force Iran to loosen its grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and gas trade passes in peacetime. The United States also reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports to stop crude oil shipments.
Week-to-week cargo shipments through the strait fell by almost a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to shipping data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. And that was before the recent increase in tit-for-tat attacks.
Lloyd’s said on Thursday that, given the risks, some oil carriers were transiting the strait with location devices turned off, but many remained where they were. An increasing share of the region’s energy is transported by pipelines, but this is not enough to compensate for the decline in transportation through the Bosphorus.
A post on the U.S. military’s Central Command
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Associated Press writers Annika Wolters in Rayong, Thailand, and Stella Martany in Erbil, Iraq contributed to this report.
