Today, April 4, has brought some of the most intense exchanges of the conflict, with the U.S.-Israeli air campaign widening its targeting of civilian infrastructure while Iran continues to retaliate.
U.S. and Israeli forces hit two petrochemical plants in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province this morning, while a further strike on the Bushehr nuclear facility—which has now been hit multiple times—killed one person.
The attacks follow President Trump’s explicit threat: “Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants! New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!”
Threats to strike water and power infrastructure are a call to commit war crimes. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded: “Striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender.” He continued: “It only conveys the defeat and moral collapse of an enemy in disarray. Every bridge and building will be built back stronger. What will never recover: damage to America’s standing.”
Iran’s retaliatory strikes today targeted the U.A.E. with particular intensity: Abu Dhabi reported responding to 23 ballistic missiles and 56 drones—79 projectiles in a single day, the heaviest Iranian strike on a Gulf state since the war began. Operations at the Habshan gas facility were suspended after fire broke out. Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, the country’s largest, has also been struck by a drone.
Oil markets reflect the escalating risk to global energy infrastructure, with benchmark U.S. crude exceeding $111 a barrel.
