The United States military carried out its seventh straight night of airstrikes against Iran on Friday, targeting surveillance sites, military logistics facilities, underground weapons storage, energy infrastructure and maritime capabilities across multiple locations. US Central Command said the operation, which began at 19:00 GMT, was "designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities at the Commander in Chief's direction" and employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones and warships. Locations struck included Jask, Sirik, Bushehr, Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Ahvaz and Yazd. Iranian state media reported at least three people were killed and eight wounded in the southern province of Hormozgan, which borders the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. Separately, officials in the province said one strike cut water supplies to several towns.

The campaign marked a significant escalation in a conflict that began on 28 February, when the US and Israel launched military operations against Iran. An interim ceasefire agreed on 17 June — a memorandum of understanding intended to keep the strait open and allow negotiations toward a permanent truce — collapsed after just 25 days. The renewed fighting has centred on the Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime handled roughly one fifth of the world's oil and natural gas supply. Crossings through the strait fell to a three-week low of eight vessels on Thursday, according to shipping tracking data, and oil prices have climbed back above $86 a barrel. Earlier strikes this week hit bridges in southern Hormozgan province — key transit routes connecting Bandar Abbas, Iran's main port, to the country's interior — as well as a tower at Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, which Iran had been operating with Indian support. Iran's energy ministry acknowledged for the first time that power infrastructure had been attacked and urged citizens in the south to reduce electricity and air conditioning use amid extreme heat. Human rights experts have noted that strikes on civilian infrastructure not serving a military purpose could constitute war crimes under international law.

Iran has retaliated by striking targets across the Gulf region. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it hit a depot housing US unmanned aerial vehicles in Bahrain and fired missiles at US-linked assets in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. In Kuwait — a desert nation that depends on desalination for about 90% of its drinking water — Iranian strikes damaged a power and water desalination plant and sparked a fire that was later extinguished. Qatar, one of the mediators in the conflict, was also targeted; its interior ministry said falling debris from intercepted missiles wounded a child. Jordan's military said its air defences downed ten Iranian missiles that entered the kingdom's airspace. Warning sirens activated across Bahrain multiple times. Senior Iranian military adviser Major-General Mohsen Rezaei warned that Tehran would move beyond deterrence into "offence and complete destruction" if US attacks did not cease within two or three days, saying "no political border will be safe."

The broadening conflict is generating alarm well beyond the two belligerents. The US State Department urged Americans to reconsider travel throughout the Middle East, citing a "complex" security environment with potential for "unforeseen escalation." Iran has asked its Yemeni allies, the Houthi movement, to be prepared to disrupt shipping through the Red Sea — a route now carrying a growing share of Gulf energy exports diverted from the strait — if American strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure continue. Saudi Arabia struck Sanaa airport in Yemen, prompting retaliatory Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia. Pakistan, a mediator alongside Qatar, acknowledged that efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table were becoming "increasingly difficult." The IMF has cut its global growth forecast to 3% and projects inflation rising to 4.7% this year, partly due to the conflict's effects on energy markets. Despite the mounting pressures, President Donald Trump told the American public that the war was "going well," saying: "We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly."