Kharg Island, Iran’s key oil export hub, was hit by multiple strikes on Tuesday, news agency Reuters reported, citing Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency, just hours before a deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was set to expire. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the US has struck more than 50 military targets on Kharg island.
A senior unidentified US official also confirmed that the US military conducted strikes on military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, news agency Reuters reported, citing Axios.
Following the strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that “restraint is over,” according to Metro UK. The attacks came a day after Iran rejected another US-backed ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the conflict, which has now entered its sixth week.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Tuesday that US forces again struck military targets on Kharg Island. The strikes landed hours before President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to accept his terms or face a “major attack.”
“Whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not make a deal — Trump, Tuesday morning
Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported several explosions on the island earlier in the day. Trump has separately threatened to deploy ground troops to seize Kharg’s oil infrastructure — an operation US experts warn would cost many American lives and is unlikely to end the war decisively.
A coral outcrop just 25 km off Iran’s coast — about a third the size of Manhattan — Kharg is fed by subsea pipelines from major fields including Aboozar, Forouzan and Dorood. Its deepwater jetties can berth supertankers that Iran’s shallow mainland coast cannot.
Per satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, earlier US strikes have taken out air defences, a radar site, an airport, a helicopter hangar, a hovercraft base, naval mine storage and missile bunkers — assets Washington has tied to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has said he could “immediately reconsider” sparing the energy infrastructure if Iran keeps disrupting the Strait, and told the Financial Times on March 29 that seizing the island remains an option.
Kharg Island , handling the bulk of the country’s crude shipments. Located in the Persian Gulf around 50 km off the mainland, the small coral island serves as the endpoint for pipelines connected to some of Iran’s largest oil and gas fields. Experts say that nearly all of Iran’s oil exports pass through this facility, making it one of the most sensitive economic targets in the country.
The island also houses major storage and shipping infrastructure, including large oil terminals and petrochemical facilities. Its strategic importance is also linked to its deep-water access, which allows very large crude carriers to dock: something not possible along much of Iran’s shallow coastline.
Any disruption at Kharg could significantly impact global oil supplies, with analysts warning that a direct hit on export infrastructure could sharply push up crude prices.
So far, major oil facilities on the island have largely been spared in the conflict, reportedly to avoid destabilising global energy markets. However, even limited strikes near such a key hub are likely to raise concerns over supply disruptions and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil trade.
US President Donald J Trump following the reported strikes Tuesday, saying “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” However, there is no stated connection of the statement with the attacks on Kharg island. Trump also said who knows there would be a ‘complete and total’ regime change in Iran, adding “We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”
Earlier, on Friday 13th March by the US. President Trump had then said military targets on Kharg Island had been “totally obliterated” in “one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East”, adding he had chosen not to target oil infrastructure on the island then.
