US, Iran exchange strikes as they struggle over Strait of Hormuz

Dubai, Jul 18 (AP) The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday 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 US and Israel began more than four months ago. The US Central Command said early Saturday that its seventh straight night of strikes had hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.” Kuwait said Saturday it was intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, while Iraq said it had shot down attack drones over the city of Erbil. Jordan's state-run Petra news agency said that the kingdom's air defence systems had downed Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain according to the government there. Iranian officials say recent US strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds in Iran. The US military also acknowledged that several more service members were injured. Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic after the war started February 28. That sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran significant leverage in negotiations. The price of oil rose Friday above USD 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 evening, 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 US had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear programme. Trump now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against. Infrastructure hit in Iran ---------------------------- US airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bonji, a village on Iran's coast on the Strait of Hormuz. The previous day, Iranian state media reported that the US hit highways and railway bridges, seemingly 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 US airstrike campaign for the first time Friday 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 US strikes, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday. US officials acknowledged 13 additional US service members -- 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors -- had been injured since Monday, but offered no further details. Since the war began, 14 US service members have been killed and 427 wounded. Strikes come as Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz ------------------------------------------------------------ Iran has said the strait must be under its sole control and that vessels should pay fees to Tehran -- even though the world for decades has considered it an international waterway. Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The US also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil. Crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low of just eight vessels on Thursday, according to MarineTraffic.com. A growing amount of the region's energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait. (AP) FHK AMS