The US military says it is degrading Iran’s military but has been accused by Tehran of targeting civilian infrastructure.
Published On 17 Jul 2026
The United States Army has launched a seventh consecutive night of strikes on Iran, as a military adviser to the Iranian supreme leader warns of a full-scale offensive if US attacks continue.
In a post on X on Friday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strikes began at 19:00 GMT (10:30pm in Iran) and were “designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities at the Commander in Chief’s direction”.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Five explosions were heard in the early hours of Saturday in Yazd, in central Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported. Iranian state television also said three explosions were heard in the southern city of Sirik, as another news agency, Mehr, said blasts were heard “in several provinces in the south”.
As the war continues to escalate, fears are growing that the conflict could spiral out of control.
Tehran accuses Washington of targeting civilian infrastructure and committing war crimes. Footage and images published by Iranian state media show heavily damaged bridges and railway lines in the country’s south.
Iran has warned it would respond in kind by striking civilian infrastructure across the Gulf region, risking severe humanitarian consequences.
Iran has been retaliating to the strikes by targeting what it says are US-linked assets in the region.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it struck a depot housing US unmanned aerial vehicles in Bahrain late on Friday. Washington has not confirmed the attack.
Iran to start ‘offensive operations’ if US attacks continue
Earlier on Friday, Major-General Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, warned that Tehran will move beyond the military phase of deterrence and enter the phase of “offence and complete destruction” if US attacks do not cease.
Tehran is ready to resume “full-scale offensive operations” if strikes continue for another two or three days, he said, according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.
“Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses … and no political border will be safe,” Rezaei added.
Rezaei said Washington’s attritional strategy of “war and negotiation” had reached a dead end and that the intensity of Iranian attacks would increase in the coming days.
US attacks overnight on Thursday into Friday killed eight people in Iran, the country said. The IRGC then launched attacks against US military assets in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Jordan and Syria.
On Friday, Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy announced that Iran had struck a power and water plant, damaging a large number of electricity generation units and sparking a fire that has since been extinguished.
Citizens and residents have been urged to ration electricity as a result.
Gulf states are heavily dependent on water desalination plants, which account for 40 percent of global desalinated water production. Attacks on such facilities could have catastrophic humanitarian and economic consequences within days.