Civilian and energy infrastructure sites in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates were struck on Friday, igniting fires and halting operations, as the war expands further beyond military targets.

The United States and Iran have been trading attacks on civilian infrastructure in the region over the past 24 hours. On Thursday, the United States struck a highway bridge near the capital, Tehran, killing eight people, according to Iranian news outlets, and President Donald Trump has threatened to ramp up attacks on Iran’s power plants.

The Kuwait Petroleum company said that drones had struck the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, without saying where the attack came from. In a separate incident, the Kuwaiti government said Iran had damaged a power and water desalination plant in the country. In Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital, authorities said falling debris from an air defense interception started a fire at a major gas field, halting operations there.

Since the war started on Feb. 28, Iran has attacked refineries, oil tankers, storage sites and other energy infrastructure across the region, while Israel has hit some similar sites in Iran. Intentionally targeting energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime under international law.

The strikes and Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of the world’s oil, have sent global oil prices soaring. (Markets in the United States were closed for Good Friday.)

Trump has threatened further strikes on energy infrastructure, warning that if Iran does not reopen the strait, the U.S. military will destroy the country’s power plants. “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” he wrote on social media late Thursday. “New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!”

The U.S. and Israeli militaries have battered the Iranian military with thousands of bombs over nearly five weeks, but Iran’s drone and missile attacks have continued. Iranian leaders have been defiant in the face of the repeated threats from Trump this week. Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a statement Thursday that negotiations with Washington were impossible under current conditions.

Here’s What Else We’re Covering:

— Targeting Israel: The Israeli military said Iran and Hezbollah had launched more missiles toward Israel, where the national emergency service reported several impact sites and one injury.

— Strait of Hormuz: Russia, China and France on Thursday effectively stymied a push by Arab countries to get the United Nations Security Council to authorize military action against Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The vote on the resolution was expected to be scheduled for Friday. But it remained unclear whether extra hours of diplomacy would bring the three veto-holding countries on board.

— War’s cost: Some estimates suggest the war could cost the United States as much as $1 billion a day, a total that underscores the economic trade-offs the Trump administration faces as the president had promised to focus on lowering consumer costs and other domestic issues.

— Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,606 civilians, including 244 children, had been killed in Iran as of Thursday. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 1,345 Lebanese had been killed as of Thursday, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 people had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Qasim Nauman and Johnatan Reiss/Amit Elkayam
c. 2026 The New York Times Company