US Bombing Campaign Against Iran Enters Seventh Night, Leaving More Martyrs and Destruction Behind

The United States carried out airstrikes across multiple Iranian cities for a seventh consecutive night, hitting Yazd, Ahvaz, Lar, Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Qeshm Island, and Umidiyeh, according to reports from the affected areas.

Explosions were reported in Yazd, with strikes confirmed in the other cities as well. Three more people were killed and eight wounded in Hormozgan province as a result of the latest attacks.

US forces also targeted three bridges and key tunnels, according to reports, prompting authorities to temporarily close several highways and connecting roads across the province. The pattern extends a campaign that has already hit bridges, a railway station, and an airport in the same region over recent nights — infrastructure strikes concentrated specifically around access routes near the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command said the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz remains in place, and that recent operations aim to further restrict Iran’s military capabilities. The continued blockade, paired with strikes on bridges and tunnels feeding into the strait region, suggests a deliberate strategy of constraining both Iranian military logistics and the broader transport infrastructure connecting the coastal province to the rest of the country.

Iran’s Health Ministry says the cumulative death toll from US strikes reached 38 as of 6:30 a.m. on July 16, with more than 400 people wounded — a count that now includes the latest Hormozgan casualties reported in this round of strikes. The rising toll reflects the sustained nature of the campaign, now in its second week without signs of a pause from either side.

The choice of targets — bridges, tunnels, and transport infrastructure rather than solely military installations — mirrors a pattern seen elsewhere in this conflict, where strikes have repeatedly hit civilian-use infrastructure alongside declared military objectives. That overlap has fueled Iran’s public messaging campaign around civilian casualties, including recent photo releases naming individual victims in the province.

Hormozgan’s strategic position along the Strait of Hormuz makes it a recurring target in this conflict, given the province’s direct role in controlling maritime access to one of the world’s most critical oil shipping corridors. Continued strikes there, alongside Iran’s parallel claims of naval and drone strikes on shipping in the strait, suggest the waterway itself has become the central battleground of this escalation, beyond the exchange of strikes on inland military targets.

Whether the strikes continue into an eighth night will likely depend on diplomatic developments in the coming hours, though neither side has signaled any near-term shift away from the current pattern of nightly escalation.