Iran Vows to Crush Regional Infrastructure as US Launches New Strikes and Threatens Red Sea Route

The United States opened a new wave of strikes on Iran late Thursday, and for the first time the targets included areas around Tehran. US Central Command said the aim was to "further degrade Iranian military capabilities." Iranian state media also reported attacks in Semnan province in the north, home to Iran's ballistic missile production and its space program.

Strikes were reported in a long list of other provinces as well: Hamedan, Hormozgan, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Markazi, and Sistan and Baluchistan. The US military said it hit command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities. It also named Bandar Abbas, home to Iran's largest port and to key navy and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities on the Strait of Hormuz.

At sea, the US military began enforcing the naval blockade of Iranian ports that Donald Trump recently reinstated. It said it fired on the Curacao-flagged oil tanker Belma, which was sailing toward Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export terminal. According to the US account, the ship ignored multiple warnings, and a US aircraft disabled it by putting a missile into its smokestack.

The human toll is reported by Iranian officials, whose figures are not independently confirmed in this account: more than 35 people killed and over 300 wounded. One strike on Wednesday hit a barracks of Iran's 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, a tank and armored vehicle unit, in Sistan and Baluchestan. Iranian state television said the Americans fired at least 13 missiles, that the seven dead included conscripts and career soldiers, and that a number of troops were wounded.

Iran answered with missile and drone fire on Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait before dawn. Its Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned the attacks might escalate, and the army said it would keep hitting Arab neighbors for as long as they host US forces. "Providing a base to the Americans and allowing them to fire on Iranian soil is unacceptable and will not go unanswered," it said.

Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia, a military spokesman, addressed Trump's Tuesday threat to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran returns to negotiations. If that happens, he said, all infrastructure in the region "will be crushed." He called the Strait of Hormuz an "invincible red line," and said Iran can exert control over it from any point on its territory, not only from coasts and islands. The days of exchanged fire, together with renewed threats to Hormuz, have shredded the interim deal to end the war.

A further threat comes from the south. Three sources told Reuters that Iran has asked Yemen's Houthi rebels to be ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the US strikes Iranian power infrastructure. Two senior Iranian sources and a regional source said the idea was discussed in Tehran's leadership and conveyed to the Houthis. They did not say how, or whether it followed Trump's threat. Iran's foreign ministry and a Houthi spokesperson did not immediately respond to Reuters.

A source close to the Houthis said the group has positioned missiles and drones in Yemen's highlands overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden, near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and is waiting for the order. That source said IRGC representatives already in Yemen will decide when the strait is closed. With Hormuz already shut, Red Sea attacks would disrupt the Middle East's two main oil export routes at once.

The Houthis have also fired missiles at Saudi Arabia, accusing it of bombing an airport under their control on Monday, which broke a four-year truce. Torbjorn Solvedt of Verisk Maplecroft said the timing was bad, since spillover into Red Sea export infrastructure would threaten the only major alternative route for the region's oil. Two regional sources close to Riyadh said the kingdom is taking the threats seriously and knows the Houthis are coordinating closely with Iran. What to watch next is whether Trump follows through on his power-plant threat next week.