WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States punished Iran on Friday for it launch this week of a satellite-carrying rocket into space by hitting six Iranian entities with sanctions targeting the country's ballistic missiles program.

The sanctions hit six Iranian subsidiaries of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, described by the Treasury Department as "central" to Iran's ballistic missiles program. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin cast the sanctions as part of an ongoing U.S. effort to aggressively oppose Iran's ballistic missile activity, including what he called a "provocative space launch" carrie...