THE Thai navy confirmed today (July 18) that the one Thai-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman had not been targeted as conflict between US and Iran surged to a scale unseen since an April ceasefire, Naewna newspaper said.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported late Friday that the Revolutionary Guards navy had “targeted” a Thai-flagged ship trying to get through the Strait of Hormuz. It did not give further details, according to a Reuters report published by CNA.
However, RADM Parach Rattanachaiyapan, the navy’s spokesperson, said as concern was raised in social media about the safety of a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman, that connects the Arabian Sea with the Strait of Hormuz, the Thai Navy Operations Centre coordinated with Maritime Security Command Centre (MSCC) and Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) of the Marine Department to verify the information using the ship tracking system.
The findings confirmed that the vessel targeted is not Thai flagged.
Moreover, coordination with the sole Thai-flagged cargo ship sailing in the Gulf of Oman revealed that both the vessel and the crew are safe and navigation and mission operations are proceeding normally.
The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets today (July 18) as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified, according to a report by AP published by Yahoo!News
The region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the strait. The collapse of an interim ceasefire leaves no clear end in sight for the war that the US and Israel began more than four months ago.
The US Central Command said early Saturday that its seventh straight night of strikes had hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.”
Kuwait said on Saturday it intercepted Iranian missiles and drones and that a water desalination plant was struck, causing a fire, the second such attack in two days in the tiny desert nation, which depends on desalination for 90 percent 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 in the morning due to missile threats, and Kuwait Airways said it was rescheduling most flights to and from the capital.
Iraq said it shot down attack drones over the city of Irbil. Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said that the kingdom’s air defence systems had downed Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain, according to the government.
Before the war began, the US had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear programme. Trump now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against.
Infrastructure hit in Iran
US airstrikes hit an electricity and desalination plant in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bonji, a village on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.
Overnight strikes damaged two tunnels and a bridge, disrupting one of the main highways towards Bandar Abbas, a city which sits near the narrowest part of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran’s state-run news agency. Iran also reported strikes on the strategic Qeshm Island inside the Strait.
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 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 US also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.
Crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low of just eight vessels on Thursday, according to MarineTraffic.com.
A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Commercial vessels have largely stopped passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Photo – Reuters and published by Yahoo!News
First insert: RADM Parach Rattanachaiyapan. Photo – Naewna
Second insert: Pro-government demonstrators gather at a square in Tehran, on Friday, July 17, 2026. Photo – AP/Vahid Salemi and published by Yahoo!News
Front Page: This US Marine Corps handout photograph taken on July 16, 2026, by US Central Command Public Affairs reportedly shows US Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducting a verification boarding aboard M/T Wen Yao in the Gulf of Oman. Photo published by Yahoo!News
Earlier report:
Iranian navy targets Thai-flagged ship amid fresh strikes
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