{"id":217446,"date":"2026-07-17T19:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-strikes-bridges-around-key-port-in-iran-expanding-campaign-in-battle-over-hormuz-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:41:12","slug":"u-s-strikes-bridges-around-key-port-in-iran-expanding-campaign-in-battle-over-hormuz-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-strikes-bridges-around-key-port-in-iran-expanding-campaign-in-battle-over-hormuz-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. strikes bridges around key port in Iran, expanding campaign in battle over Hormuz – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREAKING: Taylor Farms recalls iceberg lettuce amid cyclosporiasis outbreak<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
The United States attacked bridges and other key infrastructure in southern Iran overnight into Friday, capping nearly a week of strikes<\/a> aimed at intensifying pressure on Tehran to give up control of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
The latest expansion of this campaign appeared targeted at cutting off the main port city of Bandar Abbas from the heart of the Islamic Republic. Tehran hit back with new attacks on U.S. allies in the Middle East, including a first direct attack on a Syrian base and a strike on water infrastructure in Kuwait.
The collapse of the ceasefire and interim agreement has led to days of strikes and counterstrikes across the region, with traffic in the crucial waterway once again largely halted as the two sides battle over it.
Despite mounting fears for the global economy, President Donald Trump insisted the war was going well as he delivered a primetime address to the American public ahead of the midterm elections.
\u201cWe are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,\u201d Trump said.
The U.S. military targeted \u201cmilitary logistics infrastructure\u201d and \u201cmaritime capabilities\u201d in Iran during a sixth consecutive night of strikes, U.S. Central Command said late Thursday.
Iranian officials and state media said the attacks hit civilian infrastructure.
At least eight people were killed and 20 others injured in the strikes, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. It said early Friday that at least six bridges were hit, including one that was under construction.
A railway junction station just west of Bandar Abbas was also hit, the state-owned IRIB news agency said.
The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran\u2019s main port, from roads leading toward Tehran, the capital.
While other routes still are open, the U.S. strikes could expand further, potentially disrupting both the movement of military material and goods needed for Iran\u2019s 90 million people.
Iran also acknowledged \u201cattacks on power infrastructure\u201d during the U.S. airstrikes for the first time Friday, with the Energy Ministry asking people in southern provinces to use less electricity, according to the state news agency ISNA.
The latest wave of U.S. strikes also damaged a maritime control tower in Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman, which lies outside the Strait of Hormuz but is a major port operated jointly with India.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a picture on X late Thursday showing the tower collapsing as plumes of smoke rose around it.
Attacks on the tower \u2014 the third time in recent days \u2014 could impact port operations, the Mehr news agency said.
Trump had threatened to target Iranian infrastructure as tensions over the strait erupted in the past week into the daily exchange of strikes and the reimposition of the U.S. naval blockade.
Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard said Friday it responded by launching missiles and drones toward several U.S. military bases in neighboring countries, including Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar, which has played a key mediating role in the conflict.
A child was injured from falling shrapnel in Qatar during interception operations, the country\u2019s Interior Ministry said on X<\/a>. Air sirens were sounded in Bahrain, where authorities advised people to head to safety Friday morning. Kuwait\u2019s water and electricity ministry said one of its power and water desalination plants had been targeted, resulting in a fire and damage to several power generation units.
The Guard said it had targeted radar facilities and two HIMARS missile launch platforms in Kuwait, U.S. fighter jets and refueling aircraft in Jordan. It also targeted the Al-Tanf base in Syria, claiming to have targeted a U.S. Special Operations command center.
NBC News could not verify the claims, and there was no immediate comment from the Pentagon. The U.S. military announced the handover of the base to Syrian forces in February.
The escalation over the strait has seen shipping traffic ground to a halt through the waterway, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil flowed before the war.
Daily traffic has dwindled to only a dozen or so ships this week, according to Kpler<\/a>, after a surge during the ceasefire. <\/strong>On Thursday, just 8 ships transited the Strait of Hormuz, down from 15 the day before.
Tehran, which wants ships to move along a route close to its shores and extract a transit fee, declared the entire waterway closed. The U.S., which was encouraging ships to move closer to Oman to ease Tehran\u2019s grip on the key trade route, reimposed its naval blockade.
\u201cAs long as the American atrocities continue, not a single drop of oil and gas will be exported from this region,\u201d the Guard said, according to Mehr news agency.
Despite the attacks, however, it appears communication channels between Washington and Tehran were still open.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Iran wants to \u201cmake a deal with us\u201d and that the U.S. strikes were in response to Iran firing on commercial vessels in the strait.
Trump has also hailed the \u201cgoodwill\u201d gesture of Iran releasing an American citizen imprisoned since 2024. A White House official told NBC News on Thursday that Dena Karari was safely out of Iran and will return home in the coming days.
Mithil Aggarwal is a Hong Kong-based reporter\/producer for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BREAKING: Taylor Farms recalls iceberg lettuce amid cyclosporiasis outbreak news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe United States attacked bridges and other key infrastructure in southern Iran overnight into Friday, capping nearly a week of strikes aimed at intensifying pressure on Tehran to give up control of the Strait of Hormuz.Subscribe to read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}