Iran reports seven dead after US strikes on southern infrastructure
The United States conducted its sixth consecutive night of attacks on Iran, targeting bridges and other facilities in the south, resulting in at least seven fatalities and prompting Tehran to warn that the conflict could expand.
The United States launched a series of airstrikes on Iran's southern region Thursday evening, hitting bridges, rail lines and communications infrastructure in locations including Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, Iranshahr and Bandar-e Khamir. Iran's Fars news agency said the attack on a bridge in Bandar-e Khamir killed at least seven people and injured nine. The U.S. Central Command described the operation as an effort to further degrade Iranian military capabilities.
The strikes follow President Donald Trump's recent warnings that the United States would target Iranian power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to negotiations. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had responded to the U.S. attacks with strikes on a Bahrain airbase and claimed additional attacks on Kuwait and Jordan. Army spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia warned that Iranian attacks could spread to new areas if the U.S. continued its campaign.
U.S. forces also redirected three commercial vessels attempting to bypass a blockade in the Gulf of Oman, disabling one ship and boarding another. Gulf states, including Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain, have been bolstering air defenses around critical infrastructure amid the heightened tensions.
Analysts noted that Tehran appears to be using the threat of widening the conflict as leverage rather than as an immediate military objective. "It’s better essentially used as a threat than something that one would actually do," said Ali Ahmadi of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Meanwhile, a White House spokesperson said the United States remains open to diplomacy but will hold Iran accountable for any attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.