US strikes Iran’s Kharg Island as Trump threatens 'whole civilization'
Iranian outlets reported several explosions on the island, which is crucial to the country’s oil industry, just hours ahead of a US deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military struck targets on Iran’s Kharg Island on Tuesday, as President Donald Trump ramped up threats just hours before his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
What happened: Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported several explosions on the Gulf island shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time (6:00 a.m. EST), attributing them to attacks by the “American Zionist enemy.”
Axios reported that the US conducted “re-strikes” on military sites that were previously targeted and not oil infrastructure, while Fox News reported that bunkers, a radar station and ammunition storage sites were among the targets.
The US previously struck military targets on Kharg Island in March.
Why it matters: The island is crucial to Iran’s energy industry and handles around 90% of the country’s oil exports. Located about 20 miles (30 kilometers) off the Iranian coast, it features Iran’s largest oil terminal and related infrastructure.
Tuesday’s attack came as Trump’s 8:00 p.m. EST deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz approaches. Trump threatened the “whole civilization” of Iran in a Truth Social post on Monday.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” he wrote. “However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”
Iran has restricted maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of the world's oil supply normally flows, since the start of the war, causing chaos in global energy markets.
Kharg has emerged as a key target in the war, and Trump told the Financial Times late last month that the US may “take” the island.
Damaging oil infrastructure on the island could be devastating for the Iranian economy, as oil accounts for more than a quarter of the government's budget and roughly 10% of the country's gross national product. Trump said at the time of the strikes last month that the US opted not to target oil sites there.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement on Tuesday, saying that the US and allies will be “deprived of oil and gas in the region for years” if “red lines” are crossed, adding that the Iranian response will “extend beyond the region,” Tasnim reported. The statement did not mention the explosions on Kharg Island.
