Iran suspends interim deal commitments with US amid exchange of attacks

The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday as an Iranian negotiator said Tehran had suspended its commitments under the interim deal with the US -- snapping another fragile thread as the war shows no end in sight.

The battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the essential waterway that previously carried a fifth of the world's crude oil. The widening strikes threatened civilians and services to them, while the global economy again was on alert.

The US Central Command said early Saturday that its seventh straight night of strikes hit "surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities."  The US has violated its commitments under the deal that was signed about a month ago and now Iran is "no longer implementing them," Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, told state TV.

Kuwait sees the most striking damage  The most significant damage on Saturday occurred in Kuwait when Iran struck a water desalination plant and an oil facility, according to the Kuwait authorities and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Both declined to provide locations.

The strikes injured several people at the oil facility and caused a fire at the desalination plant, forcing several power generation units offline. It was the second attack against a desalination plant in two days in the tiny desert nation that depends on desalination for 90 per cent of its drinking water.

Several firefighters and a worker were injured while battling two other blazes sparked by Iranian strikes, according to the Kuwait Fire Force. Kuwait briefly closed its airspace due to missile threats, and Kuwait Airways said it was rescheduling most flights to and from the capital.

Iran targets several Mideast nations  The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stepped up its warning that countries hosting US forces should be "prepared to receive a corresponding response," according to Iran's state TV.

Iraq said it shot down attack drones over the city of Irbil. Jordan's state-run Petra news agency said the kingdom's air defence systems had downed Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain throughout the day and in Saudi Arabia in the morning, according to their governments.

Iranian officials say recent US strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds in Iran. The US military acknowledged that several more of its service members were injured.

Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic after the war started with US and Israeli strikes on February 28. That sent the price of oil soaring and has given Iran significant leverage in negotiations. The price of oil rose Friday above USD 86 a barrel, close to its highest level in a month, as crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker.

Before the war began, the US had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear programme. Trump now faces political pressure to end the war and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against.

US strikes hit infrastructure in Iran  US airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state TV reported. The attacks hit Bonji, a coastal village on the strait.

Overnight strikes damaged two tunnels and a bridge, disrupting one of the main highways toward Bandar Abbas, Iran's main port that sits near the narrowest part of the strait, according to Iran's state-run news agency. Iran also reported strikes on strategic Qeshm Island inside the strait.

Iran acknowledged "attacks on power infrastructure" during the US airstrikes for the first time Friday when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces "experiencing extreme heat." It did not specify what was hit.

Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes in the past three weeks, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday.

US officials acknowledged 13 additional US service members -- 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors -- had been injured since Monday, but offered no details. Since the war began, 14 US service members have been killed and 427 wounded.

Strikes come as Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz  Iran has said the strait must be under its sole control and that vessels should pay fees to Tehran, even though the world for decades has considered it an international waterway.

Trump has returned to threatening to target power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait. The US also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

A growing amount of the region's energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping.