President Donald Trump described the US military campaign against Iran as unprecedented in scale and determination on Friday, claiming that US forces had executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the entire history of the Middle East on Kharg Island. He spent the day calling Iranian leaders “deranged scumbags” and promising even harder strikes to come, while across the broader conflict zone Hezbollah fired multiple salvoes of rockets deep into Israeli territory, wounding close to 60 people. The war showed every sign of entering a more lethal and expansive phase.
Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on northern Israel on Friday were among the heaviest of the conflict, injuring about 60 people in a series of targeted salvoes. Israel responded with continued strikes in Lebanon, killing at least eight people in the coastal city of Sidon and nine more wounded in the same attack. Israel also targeted the Zrarieh Bridge over Lebanon’s Litani River, claiming it was being used by Hezbollah to move fighters between the country’s north and south. Lebanese health authorities have now confirmed over 600 deaths and 800,000 people displaced since the latest fighting began.
On the Iranian front, the US-Israeli air campaign struck over 200 individual targets in a 24-hour period according to Israeli military figures. Combined US-Israeli forces have now struck more than 15,000 total targets since the war began. The Kharg Island operation, which Trump described as the most powerful raid in Middle Eastern history, destroyed every military installation on Iran’s primary oil export hub. Trump warned that the oil infrastructure itself would be targeted next if Iran continued to interfere with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Gulf states continued to face Iran’s retaliatory campaign. Saudi Arabia intercepted close to 50 Iranian drones in a single day. Qatar issued Doha evacuation warnings before confirming a successful missile interception. Two people died in Oman when Iranian drones crashed in an industrial area. Debris from an intercepted projectile struck a building at the Dubai International Financial Centre. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards simultaneously announced new coordinated attacks on Israel as part of the annual al-Quds Day observance.
The human cost across the region has been staggering. Iran has reported over 1,300 deaths. The United States lost 13 service members, including six in a tanker aircraft crash in Iraq. France lost one soldier in Iraq to a pro-Iranian militia drone. Tehran residents described a city under siege, with one shopkeeper counting six explosions in an hour and a retired professor begging the international community to intervene. European governments opened quiet diplomatic channels with Tehran, seeking safe passage for their commercial ships through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz while Trump threatened further escalation.