U.S., Iran escalate strikes across West Asia
The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday (July 18, 2026) as their battle over the Strait of
The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday (July 18, 2026) as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified. The region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the strait. The collapse of an interim ceasefire leaves no clear end in sight for the war that the U.S. and Israel began more than four months ago. The U.S. Central Command said late Friday (July 17, 2026) it had launched its seventh straight night of attacks aimed at degrading Iran's military. Early Saturday (July 18, 2026), it said the strikes had hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.” Kuwait said on Saturday (July 18, 2026) it was intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, and air sirens sounded in Bahrain, according to the government there. Iranian officials say recent U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds, with new casualties reported Friday, when the US military also acknowledged more injured service members. Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic after the war started on February 28. That sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran significant leverage in negotiations. The price of oil rose on Friday (July 18, 2026) above $86 a barrel, close to its highest level in a month, as crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker. In an address to the American public on Thursday (July 16, 2026) evening, Mr. Trump insisted the war was going well. “We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly,” he said.
Before the war began, the U.S. had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Mr. Trump now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged West Asian conflict he had campaigned against. Bridges and 'electrical infrastructure' were hit in Iran The U.S. airstrikes had hit bridges in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran's coast on the Strait of Hormuz. The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran's main port, from roads leading into the Islamic Republic's central region onward to Tehran, the capital. Iran acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the U.S. airstrike campaign for the first time on Friday (July 17, 2026) when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces "experiencing extreme heat.” The ministry did not specify what was hit. Iranian authorities said at least 46 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded in recent U.S. strikes, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge on Friday (July 17, 2026). U.S. officials acknowledged 13 additional U.S. service members — 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors — had been injured since Monday (July 13, 2026), but offered no further details. Since the war began, 14 U.S. service members have been killed and 427 wounded. The tower at a key port collapses in a U.S. strike U.S. strikes conducted overnight into Friday (July 17, 2026) collapsed a tower at Iran's Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighbouring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported, and the U.S. military later confirmed.
The BriefWire