TEHRAN: Bombing intensified in the Middle East for the seventh consecutive night, with Iran threatening a "full-scale offensive" in response to American strikes and hitting several US military sites in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that two oil tankers directed by "deceptive American intelligence agencies" exploded after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz, which the US military quickly denied.
The Revolutionary Guards also said on state television they "stopped" four ships trying to transit the critical waterway.
Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said Tehran will resume "full-scale offensive operations" if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days.
"Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses... and no political border will be safe," Rezaei said, according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.
US forces reported striking Iran with attacks designed to "continue degrading Iranian military capabilities", according to a statement on X by US Central Command.
In the biggest escalation since the foes resumed hostilities, Iran accused US forces of targeting civilian infrastructure, including an airport, a railway station and two bridges, and said it had struck US assets across the region.
US President Donald Trump has previously threatened to hit Iranian infrastructure, but there was no confirmation from the US side on Friday that US forces have begun to do so.
The war began on February 28 with deadly US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which retaliated by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping channel for much of the world's oil, and launching attacks on Israel and American interests across the Gulf.
Traffic in the Hormuz strait hit a three-week low on Thursday, according to maritime trackers Kpler and MarineTraffic.
Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday that US attacks killed three people and wounded eight in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan.
Iran's army said it targeted multiple sites in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain associated with the US military.
Logistical centres
In Kuwait, Iranian forces targeted an ammunition depot in the Al-Adiri camp, the headquarters buildings and ammunition depots in the Ali Al-Salem base and several communication bridges.
In Jordan, fuel tanks at the Al-Azraq base were also targeted, the state broadcaster said on Telegram.
The Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain was also targeted, the Iranian army said, adding that it "is "one of the most important operational and logistical centres" for the US military in the region.
Jordan's army said it had shot down 10 Iranian missiles with no casualties or damage, while Bahrain's interior ministry said air raid sirens were sounded.
David Khalfa, a Middle East specialist at the Jean-Jaures Foundation, a Paris-based think-tank, noted that a "widening range of strategic infrastructure" is now being drawn into the conflict.
"The paradox is that, while the conflict continues to escalate, neither side has a strategic interest in allowing this dynamic to continue. Yet both perceive any compromise as a form of capitulation," Khalfa told AFP.
'Punish the aggressor'
Iranian authorities said the supply of drinking water to several villages in the south had been cut off, accusing the US of launching missiles that "struck the power facilities and desalination plant pumps located at the Bonji village pier", according to the Tasnim news agency.
Iran's energy ministry urged citizens to reduce electricity use and switch off air conditioners in peak hours, even as temperatures in some areas soared, after the power grid came under strain from what it said were US strikes.
Iran's military had threatened infrastructure across the region in the event of any attacks on its own networks, and launched widespread strikes on Friday.
The electricity ministry in Kuwait, where Tehran said it targeted US military sites, said an Iranian attack damaged a power and water plant and urged users to ration electricity.
The Kuwaiti military said several troops had been wounded when Iranian drones targeted a number of its bases and camps.
Iran's Guards said they had targeted US radar systems and military aircraft in Qatar to "punish the aggressor", with Doha saying it had intercepted a missile attack.
Iran's Guards said they had attacked two US radar sites in Oman and the Al-Tanf military base in Syria. A Syrian military source denied there had been an attack and US forces said they had withdrawn from the base this year.
Calls to resume talks
In Iraq's Kurdistan region, drone and rocket strikes killed nine members of an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group on Friday, the exiled Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan said, blaming the attack on Iran.
Iran's health ministry said at least 38 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded in the country since fighting resumed.
Mediators have attempted to bring both sides back to the negotiating table and China and Pakistan called for the US and Iran to stop fighting and resume talks.
The US has also reimposed its blockade of Iran's ports as part of the wider escalation, and attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz have continued.