US launches daytime strikes on Iran as explosions reported in Shiraz

After repeated overnight attacks on military targets, US escalates conflict with Iran with daytime strikes.

By World Israel News Staff

The United States launched a new wave of daytime attacks against Iran on Wednesday, July 15, as Iranian media reported explosions in the southern city of Shiraz amid a sharp acceleration of the renewed fighting.

US Central Command said the operation began at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time, or approximately 1:30 p.m. in Iran, marking a shift from the predominantly nighttime strikes conducted by American forces during the previous several days.

“The strikes are designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said.

The command did not immediately disclose the number of targets, the weapons used or the locations attacked during the daytime operation.

Shortly after the strikes began, Iranian media reported that explosions had been heard in Shiraz. Some reports referred to several blasts, but no immediate information was released about their precise location, the intended targets or possible casualties.

CENTCOM did not immediately confirm that Shiraz was among the areas attacked.

Shiraz, one of Iran’s largest cities, contains an air base and defense-industry facilities and has been targeted during previous rounds of the war. Satellite images published earlier this year showed aircraft destroyed at the Shiraz air base following earlier strikes.

The daytime operation followed a seven-hour overnight American assault against dozens of targets near the Strait of Hormuz and elsewhere along Iran’s southern coast.

The United States said the earlier strikes hit missile and drone infrastructure, air defense systems and other military capabilities allegedly used to threaten merchant ships and their crews. Iranian state media reported explosions near Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Bandar Imam Khomeini and other southern locations.

Iranian officials also said three sites in Bushehr were attacked Wednesday. Bushehr Governor Mohammad Mozaffari said no casualties had initially been reported.

“In continuation of the brutality of the American enemy, three points in the city of Bushehr were attacked today,” Mozaffari said, according to Iranian state media.

The latest operations came one day after Washington restored its naval blockade of ships entering or leaving Iranian ports. The blockade had been suspended under a June interim agreement intended to halt the fighting and provide 60 days for negotiations.

That arrangement has largely collapsed following Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz and renewed US strikes against Iran.

An American strike on an army barracks in Bampur, in southeastern Iran, killed seven members of Iran’s 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, according to Iranian state television. Iran’s army promised a “decisive response.”

Iran’s Health Ministry said more than 260 people were wounded in the latest overnight attacks. Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said more than 30 civilians had been killed in southern Iran during the renewed fighting, although the figures could not be independently verified.

Iran responded by firing missiles and drones toward countries hosting American forces. Jordan said it intercepted three ballistic missiles, while air raid warnings were activated in Bahrain and Kuwait.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that it had attacked American military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. The United States and the governments concerned did not confirm all of Tehran’s claims.

The Revolutionary Guards warned Wednesday that Iran could seek to disrupt energy exports throughout the region if the American blockade in Hormuz prevented Tehran from exporting its own oil and gas.

“The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” the Guards said.

President Donald Trump has threatened to widen the American target list unless Iran returns to negotiations. In an interview Tuesday, Trump said the United States could begin attacking Iranian power plants and bridges as early as next week.

“You better make a deal, or you’re not going to have anything left,” Trump said.

No Iranian authority had announced casualties or damage in Shiraz as of the initial reports.

CENTCOMIranIran war