U.S. strikes Kharg Island, Iran’s oil export hub; IRGC warns Strait of Hormuz ‘remains prohibited’

The U.S. military bombed more than 90 military targets on Kharg Island late Friday, going after the small island off Iran’s coast where most of the country’s oil is exported from. Central Command posted footage of the operation on Saturday.

President Trump said forces “totally obliterated every military target” but left oil infrastructure on the island intact. He threatened to reverse that if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard responded by declaring the waterway off-limits. “Any attempt to move or transit will be targeted,” the IRGC said. The Guard also warned the United Arab Emirates that American military positions in the country are “legitimate targets.”

An Iran-backed militia struck the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Saturday, the second time the compound has been hit since the war began.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “wounded and likely disfigured.” Khamenei has not been seen in public since the war began, but vowed in his first statement to avenge the “blood of martyrs.” Hegseth called the statement “weak.”

The Pentagon confirmed that all six crew members aboard a refueling U.S. military aircraft that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday have been found dead. The U.S. Central Command said the incident “was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”

Gas prices have risen to a national average of $3.68 a gallon, according to AAA, up more than 25% since the war started. At least 1,444 people have been killed in Iran since Feb. 28. More than 800 people in Lebanon and at least 15 in Israel have also been killed. Seven U.S. service members have died and 140 have been wounded.

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