The US military said it launched a seventh consecutive night of strikes on Iran as the fight over the Strait of Hormuz kept widening. US Central Command said on X that the attacks, which began at 7pm GMT, were aimed at continuing to degrade Iranian military capabilities. Iranian media reported explosions in Sirik, Ahvaz and Yazd, while the US rejected an Iranian claim that two oil tankers had hit mines and exploded.
The price of the campaign is rising fast. Iranian state TV said US airstrikes hit bridges in Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, and that further strikes brought down a tower in Chabahar, hit electrical infrastructure and targeted Iranshahr airport. Iran's energy ministry then urged people to cut electricity use and air conditioning because the grid was under strain and temperatures were extreme. By Friday morning, Iran's health ministry said renewed US strikes had killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 400.
The battle is no longer confined to bombs and missiles. The United States has reimposed a blockade of Iranian ports and ships, boarded a vessel in the Gulf of Oman and said it had redirected three commercial ships that tried to run the blockade. A day earlier a US aircraft fired on and disabled an unladen oil tanker that attempted to break through. With shipping through the strait already drastically reduced, the conflict is now hitting one of the world's most important energy corridors.
The Iranian response has spread across the region. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted sites where US combat aircraft were gathered at Sheikh Isa air base in Bahrain, along with an intelligence datacentre in Bahrain, a US fuel-support pier in Kuwait and communications and other facilities in several Gulf states. Qatar said falling debris wounded a child when missiles were intercepted, while Kuwait said a strike hit a power and desalination plant and damaged a water facility that helps supply most of the country's drinking water.
Tehran has also tried to raise the cost for countries hosting US forces. The IRGC warned that the United States and its regional hosts would pay a devastating price if attacks on civilian infrastructure continued. Reuters reported that Iran asked its Houthi allies to be ready to threaten the Red Sea route if energy facilities are hit. The result is a conflict that now touches shipping, power systems and diplomacy at the same time, making any negotiated pause more difficult to reach.
The broader strategic picture is equally stark. The strait handled about a fifth of the world's oil and gas supply before the war, and traffic has fallen sharply as both sides enforce competing rules. Pakistan says it is still trying to mediate, but even that effort is getting harder as the strikes continue and as Donald Trump says the war is going well for the US. What began as an air campaign is now shaping the global energy outlook.
