The United States widened its air campaign against Iran early Friday, striking additional bridges, electrical infrastructure and toppling a tower at a key Iranian port as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Tehran to loosen its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran responded by launching fresh missile attacks at U.S. allies across the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict.
A month-old interim ceasefire has collapsed, giving way to days of escalating exchanges between U.S. and Iranian forces as both sides vie for control of the strategically vital waterway.
Iranian officials said U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds more, with additional casualties reported after Friday’s attacks.
The conflict began Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran.
Tehran subsequently moved to effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, sending global oil prices sharply higher and strengthening its bargaining position in negotiations.
In a prime-time address to the nation, Trump said the military campaign was progressing successfully.
“We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” Trump said.
The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks struck Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast along the Strait of Hormuz.
The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from roads leading to the country’s central region and onward to Tehran.
While other routes remain open, the U.S. strikes could expand further, potentially disrupting the movement of military materiel and goods needed by Iran’s 90 million people.
Iran also acknowledged attacks on power infrastructure during the U.S. air campaign for the first time Friday when its Energy Ministry urged people in southern provinces to reduce electricity consumption.
It said those areas “are currently experiencing extreme heat and attacks on power infrastructure.” The ministry did not elaborate on whether power plants, transmission lines or other equipment had been targeted.
Such strikes on power infrastructure had been suspected for days. Tehran City Council member Mehdi Chamran told journalists asking about electrical outages Tuesday, “Just look at how many power facilities they hit … and you wouldn’t be asking that question.”
U.S. Central Command said it struck dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, marking the sixth consecutive night of American attacks.
The strikes also toppled a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for neighboring, landlocked Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared an image of the surveillance tower collapsing as part of his effort to underscore American control over the strait. The image had already circulated on social media through activists before Hegseth posted it.
Chabahar port, which Iran has operated with support from India, has been a repeated target of U.S. airstrikes. Iranian state media acknowledged a third round of strikes on the facility without immediately confirming the tower’s collapse.
Iran described the tower as overseeing commercial traffic entering the port. However, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also operates at ports across the country.
As of 6:00 a.m. Friday, the U.S. strikes had killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 400 in Iran, Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.
On Friday, Qatar twice warned residents to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the country. Explosions were heard overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.
Qatar, along with Pakistan, has served as a key mediator in efforts to end the war. But talks have broken down over Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday. Jordan’s military said it intercepted three incoming Iranian missiles Friday morning.
Explosions also were heard Friday morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region as air defenses responded to incoming fire.
The attack apparently targeted the Iranian Kurdish dissident group Komala, killing at least nine people and wounding others, an official said on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
Iran did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack but has targeted Komala in the past.
Also on Friday, a tanker traveling through the Strait of Hormuz along the route closest to Oman came under attack, the British military said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship sustained minor damage, but no crew members were injured.
Iran has attacked tankers traveling along the route near Oman before but did not immediately acknowledge responsibility for the latest attack.
Trump has renewed his threats in recent days to target Iranian power stations and bridges in an effort to force Tehran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas once passed during peacetime.
The United States has also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt crude oil shipments.
Weekly cargo shipments through the strait dropped by nearly a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. That decline came before the latest surge in violence.
Given the risks, some oil tankers are transiting the strait with their tracking devices turned off, while others are remaining in place, Lloyd’s said Thursday. An increasing share of the region’s energy exports is moving through pipelines, though not enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.
U.S. forces have redirected three commercial vessels attempting to breach the blockade, disabled one that failed to comply and boarded another.
