US airstrikes hit Iranian sites, kill naval officer

The United States conducted multiple rounds of airstrikes across southern Iran over the weekend, killing at least one Iranian naval officer and injuring four others, as hostilities over control of the vital Strait of Hormuz escalated dramatically. The strikes, described by U.S. Central Command as a response to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping, targeted hundreds of military sites and reportedly triggered retaliatory Iranian missile and drone attacks on U.S. facilities in several Gulf states.

The latest escalation began on the evening of July 11, when U.S. forces launched strikes against approximately 140 Iranian military targets, including radar sites, missile and drone launch positions, and coastal assets. Iranian state media reported explosions in numerous port cities along the strategic waterway, including Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Jask, Qeshm, Bushehr, and Asalouyeh. The Iranian navy reported that Lieutenant Hamidreza Dehghani was killed in the strikes on the port of Jask.

The immediate trigger cited by U.S. officials was an attack by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the Cyprus-flagged container ship MV GFS Galaxy transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel...