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3. U.S.-Israeli Strikes Hit Iran's Kharg Island

U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran expand to new targets on Tuesday, hitting economic and transportation infrastructure across the country.

The U.S. and Israel hit the key Iranian oil export terminal of Kharg island, media reported Tuesday.

"The American-Zionist enemy has carried out several attacks on Kharg island, and several explosions have been heard there," Iran's Mehr news agency reported.

According to an X post by journalist Barak Ravid of the news site Axios, citing a US official, the US carried out "strikes on military targets" on the island located off Iran's western coast.

The announcement of the strikes came as US President Donald Trump warned "a whole civilisation will die" if a midnight deadline for a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz was not met.

However, The New York Times quoted an unidentified White House official saying that the targets on Kharg Island were military. CNN quoted a US official saying the strikes were against military targets and did not hit oil facilities.

Kharg Island is at the heart of Iran's oil export industry, a lynchpin of the country's battered economy, and lies in the narrow, strategic Hormuz Strait.

It has Iran's largest oil terminal, oil pipelines, storage tanks and related infrastructure. On March 13, the United States said it bombed more than 90 military targets on the island, without hitting oil infrastructure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Israel struck on Tuesday railways and bridges in Iran "used by the Revolutionary Guards", after Iranian officials reported damage to at least two bridges and railway infrastructure.

Netanyahu said on X that Israel “eliminated several regime commanders last night and struck key infrastructure it used.”

Trump had warned that unless Tehran allowed free passage through the strategic oil chokepoint by midnight GMT, the United States would unleash what he called the "complete demolition" of Iran's critical infrastructure, including bridges and power plants.

With AFP