{"id":210488,"date":"2026-07-17T05:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T05:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/210488\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T05:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T05:42:13","slug":"us-strikes-bridges-and-collapses-a-tower-at-a-key-port-as-its-iran-campaign-expands-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/210488\/","title":{"rendered":"US strikes bridges and collapses a tower at a key port as its Iran campaign expands"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States expanded its air strike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges and apparently collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port, part of US President Donald Trump’s threats to start striking infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tankers that reignited the war <\/a><\/p>\n

The commercial tankers struck as they transited the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks were “highly, highly targeted”, according to marine traffic watchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iran launched new missile attacks against US-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the war.<\/p>\n

The interim ceasefire agreed to last month <\/a>has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the US and Iran as they battle for control of the strait.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iranian officials say US strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300 others, with new casualties reported in Friday’s strikes.<\/p>\n

When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.<\/p>\n

Speaking in a prime-time address to the American public, Mr Trump insisted the war was going well.<\/p>\n

“We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly,” Mr Trump said.<\/p>\n

Bridges and port tower hit in Iran<\/p>\n

The US air strikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

The US military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest air strikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, the sixth night in a row of American attacks.<\/p>\n

The strikes also appeared to have collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked neighbouring Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Chabahar port, which Iran had been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American air strikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iranian state media acknowledged a third round of strikes on the facility without immediately acknowledging the tower’s collapse.<\/p>\n

\"Night-time<\/p>\n

Smoke rises during what the US military says is its latest wave of strikes on Iran. (Reuters: US Central Command\/Handout)<\/p>\n

Iran described the tower as overseeing commercial traffic into the port.<\/p>\n

However, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also operates at ports across the country.<\/p>\n

Iran retaliates by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war<\/p>\n

On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People heard explosions overhead as air defences fired to intercept the missiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.<\/p>\n

Qatar is a key mediator with Pakistan in trying to reach an end to the Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n

But talks have broken down over Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Iran earlier targeted Bahrain and Kuwait over US air strikes hitting bridges in the Islamic Republic overnight.<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States expanded its air strike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges and apparently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[260,20232,15958,897,34,213,101,392,51],"class_list":["post-210488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-air-strikes","tag-bridges","tag-chokehold","tag-gas","tag-iran","tag-oil","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-trump","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116933725457709524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}