The US and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday as an Iranian negotiator said Tehran had suspended its commitments under an interim deal with the US. The battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the essential waterway that previously carried a fifth of the world's crude oil, per the AP. The widening strikes threatened civilians and services, including desalination plants for drinking water, while the global economy again was on alert. US Central Command said Saturday that its seventh straight night of strikes hit "surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities."
The US has violated its commitments under the deal signed about a month ago and Iran is "no longer implementing them," Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, told state TV. There was no new word on mediation efforts. The most significant damage from Iranian strikes on Saturday occurred in Kuwait, where a water desalination plant and an oil facility were hit, according to Kuwait authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Both declined to provide locations. The strikes injured several people at the oil facility and caused a fire at the desalination plant, forcing several power-generation units offline. It was the second attack against a desalination plant in two days in the tiny desert nation that depends on desalination for 90% of its drinking water.
Several firefighters and a worker were injured while battling two other blazes sparked by Iranian strikes, per the Kuwait Fire Force. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace due to missile threats, and Kuwait Airways said it was rescheduling most flights to and from the capital. Meanwhile, Iraq said it shot down attack drones over the city of Irbil. Jordan's state-run Petra news agency said the kingdom's air defense systems had downed Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain throughout the day and in Saudi Arabia in the morning, according to their governments.
US airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state TV reported. IRNA said the Bonji desalination plant was destroyed, cutting off water supplies to about 10,000 people, and that a desalination plant on strategic Qeshm Island inside the strait was damaged. Overnight strikes damaged two tunnels and a bridge, disrupting one of the main highways toward Bandar Abbas, Iran's main port that sits near the narrowest part of the strait, according to Iran's state-run news agency. More here.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
