# US Strikes Iran for a 12th Straight Day as Both Sides Threaten Civilian Infrastructure

Iran's foreign minister said Tehran would adopt an "eye for an eye" doctrine after Trump threatened to destroy a bridge or power plant for each attack on Gulf shipping.

- Published: 2026-07-23T05:16:30.361Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-07-23/us-strikes-iran-for-a-12th-straight-day-as-both-sides-threat
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: geopolitics
- Sources: [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07/22/world/iran-war-strikes-trump-hormuz), [The Hindu](https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/iran-us-war-live-updates-military-strike-us-central-command-strait-of-hormuz-donald-trump-netanyhau-khamenei/article71256441.ece), [Dawn](https://www.dawn.com/news/2017740/houthis-attack-saudi-tankers-in-red-sea-as-us-strikes-iran-for-12th-consecutive-day)

United States Central Command said it carried out a new wave of strikes on Iran early Thursday, the twelfth consecutive day of attacks in a conflict now in its fifth month. Iranian state media said a missile strike hit the province home to the country's only operating nuclear power plant, according to [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07/22/world/iran-war-strikes-trump-hormuz).

The exchange has moved toward each side's civilian systems. President Donald Trump wrote that any Iranian attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz would be answered by the destruction of "one bridge or power plant," including targets in or beside Tehran. Iran's foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, said his country would follow an ["eye for an eye" defense doctrine](https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/iran-us-war-live-updates-military-strike-us-central-command-strait-of-hormuz-donald-trump-netanyhau-khamenei/article71256441.ece), a formulation that both sides now use to justify targeting the other's infrastructure.

Pakistan's Dawn [reported](https://www.dawn.com/news/2017740/houthis-attack-saudi-tankers-in-red-sea-as-us-strikes-iran-for-12th-consecutive-day) that the strikes coincided with the Houthi tanker attacks in the Red Sea, widening the conflict from Iranian territory to Gulf shipping lanes. Iran's health ministry has counted 53 killed and 592 injured since late June, figures that could not be independently verified.

## What this means

The shift from military to civilian targets removes the implicit limit that had let markets treat the conflict as contained. Power plants, bridges, and nuclear facilities are fixed, high-value assets, so each threatened strike raises the tail risk of an uncontrolled escalation that closes Hormuz outright. The exposed parties are energy importers and any counterparty holding Gulf infrastructure or shipping risk, because the conflict now prices as a structural hazard rather than a bounded skirmish.

## What to watch

- Whether either side actually strikes a power plant or nuclear site, which would move the conflict from rhetoric to irreversible infrastructure damage.
- Any signal from Tehran on closing or mining the Strait of Hormuz, the single event that would take crude sharply higher.
- Whether back-channel talks resume, given US officials have called Iran "not serious" about a deal while leaving the door open.