The commander of the Aerospace Force in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed Friday that Tehran would not halt its attacks in the region until the US stopped striking Iran’s southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuz.
In a social media post, Majid Mousavi said “Tehran and the south are one and indivisible as Iran”, adding that “effective and targeted strikes from across Iran against the enemy will continue” until attacks on “the southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuz” cease.
-AFP
The United States and Iran traded attacks on Friday, with Tehran targeting American assets across the West Asia in the biggest escalation since the two foes returned to outright war.
A month after the two sides agreed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the conflict that began in February, Iran accused U.S. forces of hitting civilian and energy infrastructure on Friday including an airport, a railway station and two bridges, with state media reporting at least eight dead and 20 wounded in overnight attacks.
It signalled an apparent expansion of American strikes with a focus on Iranian infrastructure, which U.S. President Donald Trump has previously threatened to hit, but there was no immediate comment from U.S. officials.
-AFP
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that they had targeted U.S. radar systems and military aircraft in Qatar to “punish the aggressor” following overnight U.S. strikes on Iran.
“In continuation of last night’s retaliatory operations, the brave fighters of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force... carried out a heavy and surprise attack on the US airbase at al-Udeid, Qatar, to punish the aggressor and the child-killing U.S. military,” the IRGC said in a statement.
-AFP
More airlines are restoring flights to parts of West Asia after the conflict that followed U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, but some carriers have kept suspensions in place. Below is an update on the status of some airlines’ flights:
A new wave of U.S. attacks on Iran has plunged Iranians back into deep uncertainty and anxiety after a period of relative calm while a shaky ceasefire held.
Iranians contacted by Reuters via an encrypted messaging app said economic problems were mounting and they were consumed by worries over what will happen next.
Sharing a photograph of her weekly grocery shopping, Somayeh, 40, a photographer in Tehran, said the pre-war prices had almost doubled.
“The most important thing overall in the middle of the war is the economy. Everyday our situation is worse and more difficult,” she said.
Amir, a 30-year-old software engineer in Sanandaj in the western Kurdistan province, said he had been worrying about how to provide for his family and struggling to find work since Iran’s leaders cut internet connectivity during protests against the authorities in January.
“Within a month or so when the internet was reconnected, the war began. The internet was cut off again, businesses were again severely impacted, there was a lot of trouble in my industry,” he said, adding that he has crippling debt and that there were no other pathways ahead. - Reuters
“One of Kuwait’s power generation and water desalination stations was hit in an Iranian attack, causing damage to facilities, a fire and the disruption of a large number of electricity generation units,” Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said. - Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had struck US military aircraft stationed in Jordan with ballistic missiles and drones in retaliation for overnight US strikes.
In a statement, they claimed to have destroyed “several US refuelling aircraft and fighter jets” and caused “serious damage to many more”. They also called on Jordanians to target “the interests of the aggressive and anti-Islamic Americans” in their country.
- AFP
“A suspected attack by Iran on an Iranian Kurdish dissident group in northern Iraq killed at least nine people on Friday (July 17, 2026),” an official with the group said.
The official with Komala, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security reasons, said others had been wounded in the strike.
“Iran is believed to have carried out the attack, which included missiles and drones targeting the group in Zargwezala near Sulaymaniyah in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region,” the official said.
Iran did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, though it has carried out repeated assaults targeting Kurdish dissidents in Iraq. - AP
Strikes in Iraq’s Kurdistan region killed eight members of an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group on Friday (July 17, 2026), the exiled party said, blaming the attack on Iran.
Idriss Kohlwazi from the Komala party told AFP that “the Iranian regime attacked with drones and rockets a camp” belonging to the party and its vicinity near the city of Sulaimaniyah in the early morning.
The attack resulted in the “martyrdom of eight of our members and wounding others,” he added. The escalation in Iraq comes against the backdrop of renewed military escalation between the United States and Iran, Iraq’s main allies. - AFP
Qatar announced on Friday (July 17, 2026) that its Army had intercepted a missile attack, with falling debris injuring a child.
“The Ministry of Defence... announces that the armed forces have intercepted a missile attack that targeted the State of Qatar,” the Ministry wrote on X. “A child was injured by falling debris after the interception,” the Interior Ministry later reported.
Iran has targeted several Gulf countries since hostilities with the United States resumed on July 7, claiming to be aiming at American military installations. - AFP
Iranian state media reported on Friday (July 17, 2026) that overnight U.S. strikes on infrastructure in southern and western Iran killed eight people and wounded 20 others.
“Some infrastructure in several provinces of the country came under US military attack,” the IRNA news agency said, reporting that six bridges in the southern province of Hormozgan were targeted.
- AFP
Just three commodity vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday (July 16, 2026), the fewest daily transits since May, shipping data showed, with most ships halting or making U-turns after recent Iranian attacks on vessels and the resumption of a U.S. blockade on Iran-related shipping.
The re-escalation in fighting between the U.S. and Iran has once again largely stopped traffic through Hormuz, the world’s most important shipping route for oil and gas, driving up global energy prices.
Miraan, a sanctioned product tanker carrying fuel oil, and Norita, a small vessel carrying liquefied petroleum gas, exited the strait on Thursday (July 16, 2026) via the Iranian route but stopped at the Gulf of Oman, where the U.S. blockade is, Kpler data showed as of 05:13 GMT on Friday (July 17, 2026).
Arolia, a bunkering tanker laden with Iraqi fuel oil that is used to refuel vessels at sea, made a U-turn to head back into the Gulf hours after it exited earlier on Friday (July 17, 2026), LSEG data showed.
- Reuters
Iran’s Health Ministry said on Friday (July 17, 2026) that at least 38 people had been killed and more than 400 injured in the country since fighting resumed with the United States.
“The number of injured from U.S. attacks has exceeded 400, and 38 compatriots have been martyred” since June 22, Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour posted on X.
“Among them are 22 injured women, three martyred women, nine injured under the age of 18, and one martyr under 18,” he added.
- AFP
The U.S.-led coalition shot down several drones on Friday (July 17, 2026) over Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, Kurdish forces said, in the second such incident in the city this week.
Kurdish counterterrorism forces said that “coalition forces downed eight explosive-laden drones over Erbil between 04:19 and 05:25 am (0119 and 0225 GMT)”, with no damage or casualties reported.
- AFP
A tanker was hit by an unknown projectile on Thursday (July 16, 2026) while sailing about 19 nautical miles (35 km) east of Khasab, Oman, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Friday (July 17, 2026).
The crew was reported safe and no environmental impact was reported, UKMTO added.
- Reuters
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has proposed replacing the expiring UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon with an EU-mandated force to prevent a security vacuum.
“We should examine in the EU whether we can ensure that no security vacuum arises with a European mandate following the UNIFIL mission,” Mr. Wadephul said in an interview published on Friday (July 17, 2026).
The UNIFIL mission expires on December 31, 2026. Germany’s parliament extended the country’s participation in the mission for the final time just weeks ago.
Mr. Wadephul said Lebanon, with a stabilising government, represented “one of the most hopeful developments in the region at the moment.” An EU-mandated force could “create the conditions for the Israeli army to withdraw without Hezbollah returning with its terror,” the Minister added.
- Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday (July 17, 2026) they had struck two radar sites belonging to the United States in the Gulf sultanate of Oman.
A statement said their forces “targeted and destroyed the maritime surveillance radar at the Salamah Rocks and the U.S. air surveillance radar stationed in the Ghanam area”.
- AFP
China’s and Pakistan’s Foreign Ministers on Friday (July 17, 2026) called on the United States and Iran to end fighting and return to the negotiating table, after they met in Shanghai, according to a government statement.
China’s Wang Yi and Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar jointly “expressed concern over the deterioration of the current situation, calling on the involved parties to immediately cease hostilities... (and) return to dialogue”, the statement by Beijing’s foreign ministry said.
- AFP
Jordan’s military said it shot down three Iranian missiles on Friday (July 17, 2026), reporting no casualties or damage, as the war in West Asia escalated.
“This Friday morning, air defence systems intercepted three Iranian missiles that entered Jordanian airspace and were targeting the kingdom’s territory and managed to intercept and bring them down,” said a military statement.
- AFP
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Friday (July 17) they had attacked the Al-Tanf military base in Syria.
“The IRGC announces a surprise attack on the enemy’s Special Operations Command Center in Syria’s Al-Tanf region in retaliation for the blood of the martyred Iranian soldiers in Iranshahr,” the state broadcaster wrote on Telegram.
- AFP
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked a U.S. special operations command centre at al-Tanf in Syria in retaliation for the killing of Iranian soldiers in Iranshahr, Tasnim news agency reported.
Reuters could not independently verify the claim.
The Guards also said Iran retained full control of the Strait of Hormuz and that no oil or gas would be exported through the waterway for as long as U.S. attacks continued.
- Reuters
U.S. airstrikes on Friday (July 17) appeared to have collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for Afghanistan.
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared the image of the surveillance tower appearing to collapse. That image had circulated social media via activists prior to Mr. Hegseth sharing it.
Chabahar port has been a repeated target of American airstrikes. Iranian state media acknowledged a third round of strikes on the facility without immediately acknowledging the tower’s collapse.
Iran described the tower as overseeing commercial traffic into the port. However, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also operates at ports across the country. - AP
Seven people were killed in U.S. attacks on bridges in Bandar Khamir, a port city in southern Iran, IRNA reported, citing the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. - Reuters
Iran has fired missiles and drones at U.S. military bases in neighbouring states, including an air base in Jordan.
In the early hours of Friday (July 17), Iran’s military said it had attacked U.S. facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. Several explosion-like sounds were heard in the Qatari capital Doha, according to a witness, and the Ministry of the Interior said a child was injured by shrapnel.
Iranian media reported that five bridges were hit in the latest round of U.S. strikes, as well as the train station in coastal Bandar Khamir and Iranshahr Airport in southeastern Iran.
Seven people were killed in U.S. attacks on bridges in Bandar Khamir, a port city in southern Iran, state news agency IRNA reported.- Reutrers
Iran said it launched fresh attacks on U.S. facilities in the Gulf on Friday (July 17) after a sixth consecutive night of U.S. strikes on Iranian military facilities, as last month’s truce descended into daily attacks and counterattacks.
The U.S. military said it completed another night of strikes on Iran “to further degrade Iranian military capabilities”, including on Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Revolutionary Guards facilities. - Reuters
Published - July 17, 2026 09:05 am IST