U.S. Expands Iran Strikes to Missile Infrastructure as Trump Threatens Power Plants and Bridges
U.S. forces hit targets in at least five Iranian cities, with unconfirmed reports of missile launchers struck near Bushehr, as President Trump warns that future phases could go after power plants, bridges, and energy assets. For Iran’s leadership and its neighbors, the message is that core infrastructure — not just military sites — is now on the table.
The United States has opened a new phase in its air campaign against Iran, striking a cluster of targets across the country as President Donald Trump openly threatens to expand operations to power plants, bridges, and energy infrastructure if Tehran does not pull back its own attacks.
On 15 July, U.S. forces conducted a fresh wave of strikes against sites in the southern Iranian cities of Bushehr, Mahshahr, Jam, Khormoj, and Bandar Imam Khomeini, according to regional reporting. Separate strikes hit Sirik in southern Iran and the 388th Army Brigade in Sistan and Baluchistan province. Unconfirmed accounts from Bushehr suggested that ballistic missile and surface-to-air missile launchers near Bushehr International Airport, as well as ballistic launchers at Tohid Jam Airport, were among the targets, indicating a focus on Iran’s ability to fire into the Gulf and at neighboring states.
These operations follow earlier U.S. strikes in western Iran’s Dehloran County on 14 July, and Trump’s own admission that U.S. forces had hit Kharg Island — a critical oil export hub — “two to three times.” The pattern points to a sustained effort to degrade Iran’s strike capacity and pressure its leadership by taking aim at assets that underpin both its regional posture and its economic resilience.
The human and operational impact in the targeted areas is still coming into focus. In Bampur County, reports described barracks of the 388th Army Brigade being hit directly, with dozens of soldiers killed or wounded and residents lining up at Iranshahr’s Khatam al-Anbiya Hospital to donate blood. In and around Bushehr and other southern cities, civilians living near airports, ports, and military installations are facing the reality that their neighborhoods sit in what is rapidly becoming a primary theater of a U.S.-Iran war, with all the attendant risks of mis-aimed bombs, secondary explosions, and the long-term disruption that comes when transport and energy nodes are under sustained attack.
Strategically, the geographic spread of strikes — from western border regions to the Persian Gulf coast and the restive southeast — signals that Washington is not confining itself to retaliating at the specific launch points of Iranian missiles and drones. Trump has been explicit about this wider ambition. In remarks on 14 July, he said U.S. strikes against Iran would continue over the coming days and that “ultimately, we’ll hit energy targets in Iran,” adding that “next week come the bridges” and threatening to “knock out all of their power plants” and “all of their bridges” unless Tehran returns to negotiations. He also declined to rule out a limited ground campaign, saying that sometimes such an operation is needed, though he suggested “other people” would carry it out on the ground.
For Iran’s leadership, military commanders, and ordinary citizens, those statements transform what might have been interpreted as a punitive yet bounded campaign into an open-ended pressure strategy with the country’s core infrastructure at risk. Parliamentarians appear to be reacting accordingly: 180 of 270 members of Iran’s legislature signed a joint declaration on 15 July calling for an end to any agreements with the United States and expressing a desire for revenge, language that narrows political space for de-escalation.
The consequences of the threatened target set go far beyond Iran’s borders. Strikes on power plants or major bridges would not only strain Iran’s own grid and transport networks but also raise the risk of environmental incidents, refugee flows, and spillover disruption to energy exports that feed global markets. Iran has already signaled it is prepared to answer U.S. pressure on its soil with pressure at sea and in neighboring states, claiming a closure of the Strait of Hormuz and launching drones and missiles at Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.
The line that stands out in this phase of the conflict is that infrastructure once treated as a red line is now being talked about as a target. A war framed as a contest over deterrence and missile launches is edging toward a contest over how much damage each side is willing to inflict on the other’s basic functioning as a state.
Signals to watch next include any confirmed hits on Iran’s energy and power infrastructure, shifts in Iranian missile and drone launch rates after the reported strikes on Bushehr and Jam, changes in Gulf energy export flows that might indicate disruption, and whether Washington’s partners show appetite for, or resistance to, a campaign that could reshape Iran’s civilian landscape as much as its military one.
Sources
- OSINT