The 13th night of American strikes on Iran ended at 9 p.m. Thursday Eastern Time. By Friday morning in the Gulf, Iranian drones were falling on three countries that had not been direct combat zones before.
Iran’s military said it struck American facilities in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait — a geographic expansion of a war that, until now, had mostly played out inside Iranian territory and over the Strait of Hormuz. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it destroyed a Patriot battery and an MQ-9 hangar at Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base, and that it hit fuel depots and radar installations in Jordan. Independent confirmation of damage is limited. Kuwait intercepted several missiles; Jordan shot down five more near Al-Azraq with no casualties. Six drones appeared over Erbil in northern Iraq, briefly shutting the airport.
The IRGC has made grandiose claims before, and its damage assessments should be treated as propaganda until verified. What is not in dispute is the pattern: Iran is now striking beyond its borders with drones that are reaching targets hundreds of miles away.
“We consider any facility or base in the Middle East that the US military uses for strikes on Iran a legitimate target for retaliation,” an Iranian military spokesman said.
That is a lot of territory.
The widening of the battlefield comes as the war enters its 148th day with no ceasefire in sight. Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Zaidi carried a US ceasefire proposal to Tehran this week. Iran rejected it, insisting that any halt in fighting must first resolve the question of who controls the Strait of Hormuz — a demand the US cannot accept without surrendering the principle of free navigation.
Brent crude settled at $100.69 on Thursday, the first close above $100 in two months. The IRGC has declared the strait “completely closed” and claims to have set a tanker ablaze off the Oman coast. Pre-war, 120 to 140 vessels transited Hormuz daily. On Monday, there were ten.
The American military campaign, meanwhile, has shifted targets. After nearly two weeks of focusing on coastal missile batteries and drone launch sites, CENTCOM this week began hitting command centers and communications networks — the brains of Iran’s anti-shipping operation. Blasts were reported in Khorramabad, Jask, Ahvaz, Bandar Abbas, and on Qeshm Island. Four civilians were killed and five wounded near Ahvaz.
Donald Trump said he is “considering a massive attack” and warned that “major military punishment” would be inflicted on Iran and the Houthis if shipping attacks continue.
But the American public is divided. The House of Representatives voted 214-208 on a nonbinding resolution calling for an end to the war. The Senate fell short, 49-47, of discharging a binding withdrawal resolution. Eighteen US service members have been killed since the campaign began, with more than 500 wounded.
The war that was supposed to be about protecting shipping lanes has become something broader: a bombing campaign against Iran’s infrastructure, an Iranian drone offensive against America’s Gulf allies, and a creeping blockade that has already strangled the world’s most important oil chokepoint. Neither side shows any interest in stopping, and the battlefield keeps getting bigger.