Trump Vows to Bomb a Bridge or Power Plant for Every Ship Hit
President Trump unveiled a stark new retaliation doctrine, declaring that the United States would “bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant” — including targets in or beside Tehran — every time Iran fires on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz. The threat followed an eleventh straight night of US strikes and came alongside a renewed vow to hit the fortified “Pickaxe Mountain” nuclear site near Natanz. Iran’s military warned any such attack would trigger a “powerful assault”.
Legal scholars swiftly branded the infrastructure threat a likely breach of the international-law bar on attacks on civilian targets, and a senior Iranian official warned Tehran would answer by “striking infrastructure and bridges across the region”, including facilities in which America has interests. Pickaxe Mountain, buried deep inside a mountain south of Tehran, is assessed by experts as beyond the reach of even America’s heaviest bunker-busters; Western intelligence suspects Iran has moved centrifuges there. Overnight strikes hit Tabriz, Chabahar and Bushehr, with air defences firing over the capital. With June’s memorandum in tatters, both sides have dug in over the waterway. Watch whether the Natanz threat is carried out.