DUBAI: The United States expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by targeting bridges and other infrastructure, as Iran launched new missile and drone attacks against US-allied nations in the Middle East and warned that its retaliation could escalate.
The latest strikes marked the sixth consecutive night of US attacks, with Washington increasingly targeting infrastructure after President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iranian bridges and power plants to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had struck two radar sites belonging to the United States in the Gulf sultanate of Oman.
A statement said their forces “targeted and destroyed the maritime surveillance radar at the Salamah Rocks and the US air surveillance radar stationed in the Ghanam area.”
In Qatar, authorities warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the country.
Residents heard explosions overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles, while Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.
Iran earlier targeted Bahrain and Kuwait in retaliation for US airstrikes on bridges in the Islamic Republic.
Qatar is a key mediator, alongside Pakistan, in efforts to end the war, but talks have broken down over Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Ceasefire in Iran war has collapsed
The interim ceasefire agreed last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks between the United States and Iran as they battle for control of the strategic waterway.
Iranian officials say US strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded more than 300 others, with new casualties reported in Friday’s attacks.
When the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, sending oil prices soaring and giving Iran major leverage in negotiations.
Speaking in a primetime address to the American public, Trump insisted that the war was going well.
“We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” Trump said.
Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, earlier threatened that Iran could launch widespread attacks on “all the infrastructure in the region” if the United States acted on Trump’s repeated warnings that America could hit Iranian bridges and power plants.
“Under no circumstances and in no way will we allow America, as a foreign and extraregional country, to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “This is Iran’s invincible red line.”
Agencies
US strikes Iran for sixth straight night as Tehran retaliates against US allies
