Critical water and power infrastructure sites have been damaged as the U.S. and Iran continue to trade strikes, while the parched Middle East reels from temperatures of 100 degrees and beyond.
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Inside Iran, some 10,000 people in 20 villages faced a disrupted water supply on Saturday after the U.S. hit a desalination plant in the Bonji village on the Iranian coast, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, quoting the water company’s chief executive.
“As a result of the attack, the supply of drinking water to several villages in western Jask County has been disrupted,” the Embassy of Iran in India said in a post on X, describing the attack as a war crime.
Iran’s own strikes, primarily aimed at U.S. allies in the region, have repeatedly hit Kuwait this week. The country’s energy ministry on Saturday urged civilians to ration power usage during peak hours after a strike on a power and water desalination plant, causing a fire — the second such attack in two days.
Kuwait’s Petroleum Corporation said Saturday that Iran targeted one of its vital sites, causing several injuries and “significant material losses.”
Kuwaiti defense ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Saud Al-Otaibi said Saturday there was “severe damage” from strikes on oil and electricity facilities. The country’s foreign ministry meanwhile said that Iran’s targeting of “vital facilities” revealed a “systematic and aggressive approach aimed at civilian targets.”
Energy rationing could prove especially brutal for civilians in Kuwait, facing a scorching summer of over 110 degrees in a relentlessly arid climate.
While the U.S. and Iran have largely traded strikes on military targets since the interim ceasefire agreement collapsed a week ago, the resumed strikes on critical energy infrastructure appear to mark a further escalation.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told the semi-official Fars news agency on Saturday that Iran would follow the U.S. in suspending its commitments under the Memorandum of Understanding agreed last month, adding: “We are no longer implementing them and are focused on defending the country.”
Much of the deal, which stipulated an end to fighting and the free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, had already been effectively torn up.
The U.S. Central Command said late Friday that it had concluded its seventh consecutive night of strikes on military infrastructure and “other assets.” It did not disclose any strikes on civilian infrastructure.
The latest U.S. attacks, and those on bridges linking the critical southern port of Bandar Abbas with the capital Tehran, come as the U.S. seeks to pressure Iran into relinquishing control of the Strait of Hormuz.
The waterway is at the center of the dispute, as Tehran wants ships to move along a route closer to its coast and charge a toll for it, while Washington has been advising a route close to Oman, without Iranian control.
The ceasefire agreement between the two sides has effectively collapsed in recent weeks, with Iran declaring the strait was closed and the U.S. reimposing its naval blockade, effectively bringing shipping traffic to a standstill again after a brief surge.
Since then, the two sides have traded deadly strikes daily.
On Saturday, Kuwait said it had intercepted Iranian missiles and drones and temporarily suspended its airspace, with Kuwait Airways announcing it was rescheduling most of its commercial flights. Iranian missiles were also intercepted by Bahrain on Saturday morning, its defense forces said.
Jordanian forces also intercepted Iranian attacks, which Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said were aimed at an American base there. At least two U.S. fighter jets were destroyed there, the IRGC said, according to Tasnim on Saturday.
NBC News was unable to verify the claim.
President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted the war was going well, saying in his national address, “We are likewise winning big in Iran.”
“You will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly.”
Iran said U.S. strikes on its soil, which it says are hitting civilian infrastructure, have left dozens of people dead. At least 46 people have been killed and more than 400 injured in the strikes, Iranian officials have said of the recent strikes.
On Friday, Iran also acknowledged strikes on its power infrastructure as its energy ministry issued calls for people to conserve power in the southern provinces and cited “extreme heat.”
Iran also reported strikes on the strategic Qeshm island and on Friday said that its Chabahar port, where India operates a terminal, was attacked and a control tower was destroyed.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said Friday that it was aware of the attack but “the terminal itself did not face any damage.”
