US Strikes Iran 11th Night, Expands to Tabriz
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- US Central Command launched strikes against Iran for an 11th consecutive night, with explosions reported in northwestern Iran's Tabriz region.
- CENTCOM said the strikes began at 7 pm Eastern Time (2300 GMT) Tuesday and are designed to continue degrading Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
- An attack on Tabriz would mark a geographic departure from the current campaign's pattern, which has largely focused on southern Iran and the area around the Strait of Hormuz.
- Additional explosions were heard in Sirik and Bushehr in southern Iran, with Fars news agency reporting air defense activity in northeastern Tehran and Tasnim news agency confirming blasts in Bushehr.
- The strikes resumed following the breakdown of a June 17 memorandum of understanding agreed between the US and Iran, with both sides now competing for control of the Strait of Hormuz.
- Kuwait's army said its air defenses were intercepting an Iranian drone attack earlier Tuesday, part of Iran's repeated strikes on Gulf states including Bahrain and Qatar since US attacks resumed this month.
Why it matters: The expansion of US strikes from the Strait of Hormuz theater to northwestern Iran's Tabriz signals the campaign is broadening geographically, not just continuing on autopilot. Simultaneously, Iran is retaliating against Gulf neighbors — Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar — turning what CENTCOM frames as a shipping-protection operation into a wider multi-front regional war with at least three sovereign states now drawn in as Iranian targets.
