Last night, U.S. Central Commmand announced that US forces had “successfully completed the 13th straight night of strikes against Iran.” Using a variation of the same language its been using for two weeks, it said that “CENTCOM targeted Iranian military command centers, drone storage facilities, communication networks, coastal surveillance sites, and maritime capabilities to further diminish the threat Iran poses to civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
The statement doesn’t actually say anything though, such as why did the US bomb the Shalamcheh border crossing station between Iraq and Iran on Wednesday night. Shalamcheh is not just any border crossing but the main one that Iranians are passing through into Iraq on their way to the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage in Karbala and Najaf, a very important pilgrimage in Shia Islam, the occasion of which is a national holiday in Iran. The U.S. strike on Shalamcheh “must be compensated with an equivalent level of strikes against critical energy infrastructure and major companies,” said an unnamed Iranian official.
AP, citing Iranian media, reported that U.S. strikes hit a naval base for the Revolutionary Guard in the north of Iran. Blasts overnight were also reported on Iran’s Qeshm Island, home to stores of naval assets including drone boats that Iran can use to attack vessels on the Strait of Hormuz, as well as in Isfahan province, where there is a major Iranian air base as well as one of Iran’s nuclear sites. More strikes reportedly hit Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province and southern Fars province.
Four people were killed and five wounded in a U.S. missile attack on the outskirts of Ahvaz on the Karun River, Iranian state media said, AP reported further. An attack in Lorestan province in Western Iran injured two, state media said, while two more were injured by explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas, a critical hub for moving military supplies as well as trade cargo.
