United Nations, Jul 18: The United Nations human rights agency has voiced concern over the “wave of unrest” in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), calling for investigations into killings of protesters as well as members of security forces.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Friday appealed for calm in PoK amid a wave of unrest ahead of regional elections at the end of the month, a statement issued in Geneva said.

It added that dozens of people, mostly protesters but also law enforcement personnel, have reportedly been killed since June ahead of the vote for the legislative assembly on July 27.

The High Commissioner called for prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into all deaths that have occurred due to the unrest, both amongst protesters and members of security forces.

The Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) – a movement behind the protests comprising traders, transporters, students, lawyers, activists and others – has been banned under anti-terrorism laws for allegedly threatening public order and security.

Some of the group’s leaders have subsequently been arrested.

The criminalisation of a civil society organisation and imposition of strict limitations on gatherings raise serious concerns about infringements on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, the statement said.

Detained JAAC leaders must have access to legal representation and their families. Their rights to due process and fair trial must be fully guaranteed, Turk added.

Restrictions in the area on access to the internet are also concerning, as they disproportionately restrict the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression, including freedom to seek, receive and impart information at a time when tensions are running high.

“We urge the authorities to ensure full internet access throughout the territory,” the statement said, adding that Turk calls for meaningful and inclusive political dialogue to address the underlying issues and grievances of the local population.

Dubai, Jul 18: The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified.

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 late Friday it had launched its seventh straight night of attacks aimed at degrading Iran’s military. Early Saturday, it said the strikes had hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.”

Kuwait said Saturday it was intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, and air sirens sounded in Bahrain, according to the government there.

Iranian officials say recent US strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds, with new casualties reported Friday, when the US military also acknowledged more injured service members.

Iran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic after the war started Feb. 28. That sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran significant leverage in negotiations. The price of oil rose on Friday above USD 86 a barrel, close to its highest level in a month, as crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker.

In an address to the American public on Thursday evening, Trump insisted the war was going well. “We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly,” he said.

Before the war began, the US had been in talks with Iran over its nuclear program. 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.

Bridges and ‘electrical infrastructure’ were hit in Iran

The US airstrikes had hit bridges in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.

The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from roads leading into the Islamic Republic’s central region onward to Tehran, the capital.

Iran acknowledged “attacks on power infrastructure” during the US airstrike campaign for the first time Friday when its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat.” The ministry did not specify what was hit.

Iranian authorities said at least 46 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded in recent US strikes, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge on Friday.

US officials acknowledged 13 additional US service members — 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors — had been injured since Monday, but offered no further details. Since the war began, 14 US service members have been killed and 427 wounded.

The tower at a key port collapses in a US strike

US strikes conducted overnight into Friday collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighbouring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported, and the US military later confirmed.

Chabahar port, which Iran has been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American airstrikes.

Iran said the tower oversees commercial traffic into the port. But Central Command said it was part of a maritime surveillance network used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to “track and target” commercial vessels in the strait.

On Friday evening, Iranian state media reported explosions around Iran, including in the central and southern parts of the country. Local authorities said the U.S attacked around Ahvaz city without elaborating. IRNA also reported the sound of explosions in Lar, Yazd and Sirik.

Iran retaliates by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war

On Friday, Qatar warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defences fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.

Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday.

In Kuwait, authorities said Iran attacked a power and water desalination plant, causing widespread damage to the station. Kuwait said it extinguished the blaze and was working to assess the damage and get the station working again. About 90 per cent of the country’s drinking water comes from desalination.

A spokesman for Kuwait’s defence ministry said Iranian drone attacks on its army’s “facilities and camps” injured an unspecified number of personnel.

Jordan’s military said it intercepted three incoming missiles Friday morning, launched by Iran.

Explosions also could be heard Friday morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region as air defences targeted incoming fire. The attack apparently targeted the Iranian Kurdish dissident group Komala, killing at least nine people and wounding others, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Iran did not immediately claim the attack, but it has targeted Komala in the past.

Also on Friday, a tanker came under attack while travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, taking the route closest to Oman, the British military said. The report from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the ship sustained minor damage without any of its crew being injured.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge any attack. In recent days, it has openly targeted ships using the route, which is overseen by the US military and intended to be outside of Tehran’s control.

Strikes come as Iran and the US vie for the 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.