U.S. Central Command carried out a seventh consecutive night of airstrikes on Iran on Friday, ordered by President Donald Trump, striking bridges, a railway junction, a port control tower and desalination infrastructure across Hormozgan province. The campaign has now run uninterrupted since the collapse of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire on July 8.
The expansion marks a shift in the campaign's target set. Where earlier strikes concentrated on coastal military positions and Qeshm Island, Friday's wave moved inland, hitting the Kahurestan and Gariveh bridges, the Bandar Abbas railway junction, and the Shahid Kalantari Port control tower in Chabahar. CENTCOM says all targets were military logistics; Iran's Health Ministry reports 38 killed and over 400 wounded since the campaign resumed, including seven dead in Bandar Khamir alone.
What was hit, and why
The pattern points to a specific operational goal: isolating Bandar Abbas, Iran's principal military-commercial port, by cutting the roads and rail lines that supply it. The Wall Street Journal reports the bridge strikes were deliberate severances of logistics corridors, not incidental damage. Desalination pumps at Bonji pier and an airport in Iranshahr were also struck, prompting Iran's Energy Ministry to urge southern provinces to cut electricity use.
Iran's response widened geographically. Kuwait's desalination and power plant was hit, damaging generation units in a country that depends on desalination for 90% of its drinking water. Jordan intercepted 10 ballistic missiles. Qatar reported a child injured by shrapnel. Iran also claimed strikes on Bahrain and, for the first time, on the U.S. base at Al-Tanf in Syria — a claim Syrian officers denied.
IRGC adviser Mohsen Rezaei warned Tehran may move from "retaliation" to a "full-scale offensive phase," declaring "no political border will be secure against Iran's offensive forces."
Observers are reading: why the bridge strikes around Bandar Abbas may be the clearest signal yet of a ground option being prepared.
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A widening gap between claim and footage
CENTCOM maintains all targets struck are "military logistics infrastructure." Verified footage of the collapsed Gariveh Bridge and the destroyed Chabahar control tower — the latter posted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth himself — sits uneasily against that framing. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has voiced concern over "attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and throughout the region," language that echoes Geneva Convention protections for civilian survival infrastructure.
Trump told a primetime audience Thursday, "we are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly." Reports that the administration is actively weighing a ground option, including a possible move on Kharg Island, suggest the bombing campaign is not the endpoint but a precursor.
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