Iranian state media said the United States military had attacked bridges, a railway junction and a control tower at the Chabahar port, AP reported on July 17. Iran retaliated with attacks against Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, the al-Tanf base in Syria and U.S. radar sites in Oman, and the Iranian attacks against Kuwait damaged a power and desalination plant.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Fars News published a list of five key regional ports that were in Iran's striking range and could be targeted in retaliation for the U.S. attacks against Chabahar port: the ports of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, Mina Salman in Bahrain, Shuaiba and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, Hamad in Qatar and King Fahd Industrial in Saudi Arabia. U.S. troops boarded a tanker in the Gulf of Oman on July 16 as it maintained its blockade on Iranian ports, and the U.S. military forced several vessels to turn around. Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported an attack by an unidentified projectile on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on July 17.