US ends its latest round of airstrikes on Iran, the sixth night in a row

The US military said early Friday that it had ended its latest round of airstrikes targeting Iran, the sixth night in a row of strikes on the Islamic Republic, as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz intensifies. According to Associated Press the U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media said the U.S. strikes Thursday hit around Tehran and Semnan province, home to Iran’s ballistic missile production and space program. Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil. Week-to-week cargo shipments through the strait dropped by almost a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to Maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. And that was before the recent surge in tit-for-tat attacks.

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