Newsweek36%
US Strikes Hit Bridges, Iran Attacks Water Lifeline in Gulf 72%
By Ellie Cook32% Steve Mollman42%
7/17/2026, 12:42:53 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Unattributed Quote, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 32.3% saturation with 374 hits. Analysis detected 2,505 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,159 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 65.4% and a BS Rank of 72% (4,756 of 17,002 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 72.00% of the article peer group.
The U.S. launched a fresh round of strikes on Iran overnight Thursday, including what Iran described as strikes on bridges and one of the country's major ports, while Iran has targeted multiple countries across the Middle East.
This includes a civilian water desalination plant that Kuwait said was set on fire by an Iranian strike.
Across the Gulf, desalination facilities are a critical source of drinking water, with some countries relying on them for most of their supply.
The U.S.
Central Command (CENTCOM) which oversees all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said it had struck "dozens" of Iranian targets, including air defense systems, on the sixth consecutive night of attacks on Iran.
President Donald Trump has threatened to strike critical infrastructure, like power plants and bridges, in Iran if Tehran refuses to come back to the negotiating table after talks to secure a permanent peace deal and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane stalled.
Airstrikes on both sides resumed nearly a week ago after the ceasefire agreed upon in June disintegrated, with attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz continuing to wreak havoc.
Iran's ability to threaten shipping through the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas supply has typically flowed, has become its main bargaining chip in talks with a U.S. desperate to fully reopen the narrow waterway to commercial shipping.
The U.K.'s Maritime Trade Operations Centre, backed by the British military, said on Friday a tanker was attacked close to the Omani coast, but no injuries were reported and the vessel was carrying on its journey after sustaining "minor" damage.
CENTCOM said U.S.
Marines conducted a verification boarding of a tanker in the Gulf of Oman as part of Washington's effort to enforce its blockade of Iranian shipping.
Armed men also seized a vessel off Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, Reuters reported, raising new concerns about disruptions stretching from Hormuz to the Red Sea.
Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency later reported that the Revolutionary Guards navy had "targeted" a Thai-flagged ship attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, although no further details were immediately provided.
"Full control of the Strait of Hormuz remains in the hands of our brave warriors, and as long as America's evil deeds continue, not a single drop of oil or gas will be exported from this region," Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Friday.
Iran does not control the SoH [Strait of Hormuz]," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday.
Trump said in his prime-time address on Thursday the U.S. was "winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly."
U.S. airstrikes on southern Iran's Hormozgan province killed at least seven people and damaged seven bridges, state media reported.
US Strikes Port Hub Where Iranian Naval Forces Are Based
The U.S. targeted the city of Bandar Khamir, which is perched on the edge of the Strait of Hormuz, and bridges connecting up to the port hub of Bandar Abbas, according to Iranian media.
Many of Iran's naval forces are based in the city.
The IRGC said the U.S. had also hit a water pumping center in Bandar Abbas, with power lines in the city and surrounding areas also damaged.
Widespread travel disruption hit Bandar Abbas on Friday because of "damage to rail infrastructure," the IRNA state news agency reported.
The strikes "completely destroyed" a naval tower at the Chabahar port in the Gulf of Oman, according to state media.
Hegseth shared an image to social media showing the tower collapsing.
In a later update, CENTCOM said the Chah Bahar Shahid Kalantari Port surveillance tower was part of an IRGC maritime surveillance network used to track vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, and said its destruction would degrade Tehran's ability to coordinate attacks on commercial shipping.
IRNA separately reported a U.S. airstrike hitting the western province of Lorestan had knocked out some phone and internet connections.
Iran, meanwhile, said on Friday Iranian forces retaliated by attacking U.S. radar sites in Oman, as well as U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.
Qatar, a key mediator between the U.S. and Iran, said it had shot down Iranian attacks early on Friday.
A child was injured by falling shrapnel from an intercepted missile.
Kuwait said one of its power and water desalination plants had been set on fire by an Iranian strike and teams were trying to get the station back online.
The water plants are often linked up to power plants, meaning attacks on other important infrastructure, like electricity generators, could also cut access to water.
In Kuwait, about 90 percent of drinking water comes from desalination, along with roughly 86 percent in Oman and about 70 percent in Saudi Arabia.
Hundreds of desalination plants line the Persian Gulf coast, supplying water to millions of people across the region.
Many are within range of Iranian missiles and drones.
Iranian strikes have landed near several Gulf desalination facilities in recent months.
Earlier in the conflict, Kuwait reported damage at the Doha West desalination plant, which authorities said was caused by debris from intercepted drones or attacks near the adjacent port.
Deliberate attacks on civilians and non-military infrastructure are generally banned under several international agreements designed to limit the horrors of war, like the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Charter.
The Geneva Conventions rule out targeting sites that are "indispensable to the survival of the civilian population."
US Jets and Refueling Tankers Targeted in Jordan
U.N.
Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern about the escalation, particularly what his spokesperson described as "attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region," according to Reuters.
Bridges, water plants, and power-generating facilities are typically off-limits under international law, and strikes on these facilities can sometimes be deemed a war crime.
Iran said it had penned a letter to the United Nations, calling attacks on Iranian civilian infrastructure a "serious violation of international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes."
The IRGC also claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.S. special forces command center in Syria, close to the Jordanian border.
The Iranian military said the "surprise" attack was a response to the deaths of seven Iranian soldiers in a U.S. strike on a barracks in the southern city of Iranshahr earlier this week.
Jordan said it had shot down three Iranian missiles on Friday.
No one was reported injured.
The IRGC said it had targeted U.S. fighter jets and refueling tankers in Jordan using "several ballistic missiles and numerous drones," claiming to have destroyed multiple aircraft and damaged "many" others.
Eight people were reportedly killed in the city of Sulaymaniyah, in the east of Iraqi Kurdistan, in an attack Kurdish troops blamed on Iran.
Eight drones were shot down over the Iraqi city of Erbil, according to Kurdish forces.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Frances Mao and Yannick Demoustier.
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