US strikes leave 10,000 Iranians without water as Kuwait desalination plant burns
US strikes leave 10,000 Iranians without water as Kuwait desalination plant burns
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MEE staff
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Sat, 07/18/2026 - 09:31
Officials said facilities were destroyed as Iran warned countries hosting US forces to prepare for retaliation
Precision strikes target Iranian military sites in a handout video released on 17 July 2026 (US Centcom/AFP)
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The escalating conflict between the United States and Iran is taking a growing toll on civilian infrastructure, with Iranian officials saying overnight US strikes destroyed a desalination facility supplying drinking water to about 10,000 people.
Hamzeh Pour, chief executive of the Hormozgan Water and Wastewater Company, said US strikes hit desalination pumps and electrical infrastructure in Bunji village, in Jask, cutting off water supplies to 20 villages.
"The supply of drinking water to 20 villages with a population of approximately 10,000 people has been completely disrupted," Pour was quoted by Iran's Tasnim News Agency as saying.
Pour called the strikes "a series of crimes and terrorist attacks", adding that a seawater pumping station and a power transformer serving the Bunji desalination plant had been "completely destroyed".
"These villages are facing a severe water shortage," he added.
The damage came as US Central Command (Centcom) said it had carried out its seventh consecutive wave of strikes against Iran overnight.
Centcom said it targeted surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage facilities and maritime assets in the latest wave of attacks.
Fighter aircraft, drones, warships and other military assets took part in the operation, the command said, as more than 50,000 US service members remained deployed across the Middle East.
As the fighting spread across the Gulf, Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said a fire broke out in one of the components of a power generation and water desalination plant following the latest round of Iranian attacks.
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"This necessitated precautionary operational measures, consisting of disconnecting a number of generating units to preserve the safety of the plant and its workers, and to ensure the stability of the electrical grid," the ministry said.
The ministry's statement added that "emergency plans were activated to maintain electricity and water services as technical teams continued to monitor the situation".
Kuwait also temporarily suspended operations at its international airport and rescheduled most commercial flights after closing its airspace during the latest missile and drone attacks.
Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a warning against countries hosting US military forces to prepare for a "corresponding response".
In a statement, the IRGC said these countries should "activate their civil defence units to protect their citizens and move them away from potential military targets", accusing them of allowing their territory to be used as "launchpads for aggression against Iran".
The IRGC said it had used missiles and drones to strike Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, the Ali Al Salem Air Base, US naval facilities at Mina al-Ahmadi port, and military installations in Bahrain.
Bahraini authorities repeatedly sounded air raid sirens, while Kuwaiti forces said they were intercepting incoming missiles and drones.
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Iranian state media also reported fresh damage to two bridges on the Bandar Abbas-Rudan transport route, while officials said at least eight civilians were killed in Friday's attacks in Hormozgan province.
Meanwhile, senior Iranian military official Major-General Mohsen Rezaee said that Tehran would "abandon its restrained military posture" if US attacks continued.
"Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses... and no political border will be safe," Rezaee said, according to IRIB news agency.
"Until now, we have not focused on expanding the war, nor on launching an invasion. Until now, the goal was deterrence, to put an end to the conflict," he said, adding that "the policy of negotiating during war is over".
The latest exchange of attacks also disrupted one of the world's busiest energy corridors.
Ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic said commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had fallen to its lowest level in three weeks.
Only eight vessels transited the waterway on Thursday, down from 15 the previous day, the monitoring agency said.
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