The United States military struck Kharg Island, Iran’s most critical oil export hub, Friday in a large-scale precision operation that destroyed more than 90 military targets while deliberately sparing the island’s oil infrastructure, officials said Saturday.
U.S. Central Command said in a post on X that forces “executed a large-scale precision strike” on the Persian Gulf island, destroying naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and multiple other military installations. President Trump said the raid “totally obliterated every military target” on the island.
Mr. Trump warned Tehran that the oil infrastructure’s survival was conditional.
“If they do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision,” the president wrote on social media, according to CBS News.
What is Kharg Island?
Kharg Island sits roughly 20 miles off Iran’s northern Gulf coast and has for decades served as the country’s primary oil export terminal. The island historically handles between 85% and 95% of Iran’s crude exports, with tankers loading there before transiting the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Oil revenues, earned largely through sales to China, remain one of the Islamic republic’s most significant sources of funding.
If the island’s loading facilities were knocked out, Iran’s ability to export oil would collapse almost immediately, according to CBS News.
The strategic calculus
National security analyst Aaron MacLean told CBS Saturday Morning that the Kharg Island strikes demonstrated Mr. Trump holds leverage over Tehran in response to Iran’s continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through the waterway, which Iran has been threatening to shut to most traffic since the conflict began.
“The president has linked the vulnerability of Kharg Island to Iran’s continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr. MacLean said, per CBS News.
Oil and gas prices have surged since the war began. A release of 172 million barrels from the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve failed to calm investors, and the price of a barrel of crude oil rose above $100 for the first time in years on Thursday, CBS News reported.
Calling for international help
As the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz deepened Saturday, Mr. Trump called on allied and affected nations to deploy naval vessels to help keep the waterway open. In a pair of social media posts, the president said “many countries” would be sending warships to the region in conjunction with U.S. forces, and specifically called out China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom by name, according to ABC News.
“One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!” Mr. Trump wrote. ABC News said it had reached out to the White House for clarification on whether the named countries had formally agreed to send ships.
Mr. Trump also said U.S. forces would continue “bombing the hell out of the shoreline” and would shoot Iranian ships “out of the water” in the meantime. He insisted Iran’s military capabilities had been “destroyed 100%,” while acknowledging the country could still deploy drones, naval mines and short-range missiles against shipping in the strait, per ABC News.
Israel congratulates U.S.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz praised the Kharg Island operation, congratulating Mr. Trump on what he called the severe blow U.S. forces dealt to the island. Mr. Katz said Israel was “continuing a powerful wave of attacks on Tehran and throughout Iran,” according to ABC News.
Kharg Island has been targeted before
The island is no stranger to wartime bombardment. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein ordered repeated Iraqi airstrikes on Kharg in an effort to cut off Iran’s oil revenues. The facilities sustained heavy damage, but Iran continued repairing them and kept exports flowing, CBS News reported.
Since then, Tehran has invested heavily in fortifying the island, constructing air defenses, hardened infrastructure and underground storage facilities designed to keep oil moving even under sustained bombardment. Iran has also spent decades building asymmetric warfare capabilities — including fast attack boats, naval mines and suicide drones — that analysts say could make sustained Gulf operations costly for any adversary even without a conventional military match, according to CBS News.
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