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U.S., Iranian Forces Target Civilian Infrastructure

7 0
19.07.2026

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the widening scope of U.S. and Iranian strikes, Britain’s new Labour Party leader, and China denying interference in U.S. elections.

Iran accused U.S. forces on Friday of targeting civilian infrastructure in their latest salvo of attacks, marking a drastic escalation in ongoing fighting. Although U.S. President Donald Trump has previously threatened to widen the military’s campaign to include assaults on power plants and bridges, legal experts warn that doing so could be considered a war crime.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the widening scope of U.S. and Iranian strikes, Britain’s new Labour Party leader, and China denying interference in U.S. elections.

Iran accused U.S. forces on Friday of targeting civilian infrastructure in their latest salvo of attacks, marking a drastic escalation in ongoing fighting. Although U.S. President Donald Trump has previously threatened to widen the military’s campaign to include assaults on power plants and bridges, legal experts warn that doing so could be considered a war crime.

U.S. strikes on Friday damaged at least five highway and railway bridges, killing at least eight people and wounding around 20 others, according to Iranian state media. This would bring the total number of casualties caused by U.S. forces since fighting reignited last week to roughly 38 deaths and more than 400 injuries. Friday’s strikes appeared to be aimed at cutting off Bandar Khamir, a major port, from roads leading inland toward Tehran.

The U.S. military’s recent assault also hit a train station in Bandar Khamir, an airport in the city of Iranshahr, and a surveillance tower at Chabahar port along the Gulf of Oman. “The destruction of the tower directly degrades IRGC’s [the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s] ability to coordinate attacks on innocent civilian crew members,” U.S. Central Command wrote on X on Friday.

In response, Iranian forces launched a slew of attacks on the country’s Persian Gulf neighbors. Tehran claimed on Friday to have hit U.S. bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar as well as a U.S. radar station in Oman. It also fired at Syria for the first time reported since the conflict began, targeting what Tehran described as a U.S. special forces base in the city of al-Tanf. No casualties were reported, as both Damascus and Washington maintain that U.S. troops had vacated al-Tanf earlier this year.

Most notably, though, Iranian strikes on Friday damaged one of Kuwait’s power generation and water desalination plants. The attack sparked a........

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