Civilian sites hit as US-Iran strikes widen around Hormuz
US and Iranian attacks have damaged bridges, utilities and ports, drawing warnings over protections for civilian infrastructure under war law.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
The United States and Iran have traded strikes that have damaged civilian infrastructure, raising questions about whether attacks in and around the Strait of Hormuz comply with international law. Al Jazeera reported that both governments say their operations are aimed at preventing the other side from gaining military control over the strategic waterway.
Iranian authorities say at least 50 people have been killed and 500 wounded in Iran since hostilities resumed on July 15. Al Jazeera reported that sites struck in the past week range from military command centres to railways, airports, bridges and utilities.
The 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols protect civilian objects in war, according to Al Jazeera’s account of the legal framework. Those objects include homes, schools, roads, bridges, railways, airports, power plants, hospitals, water systems, sewage facilities, communications networks, food supplies, dams and nuclear power plants.
Under the treaties, civilian infrastructure may become a lawful target only if it is being used for military purposes at the time and its destruction offers a definite military advantage, Al Jazeera reported. The rules also require proportionality, meaning expected harm to civilians must not outweigh the military gain.
Luke Moffett, a law professor at Queen’s University Belfast, told Al Jazeera that infrastructure is presumed civilian and protected unless enemy use turns it into a military objective. He said attacks that fail to meet that standard can be indiscriminate and may be prosecuted as war crimes.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson said Friday that he was “particularly concerned about attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region” and called such attacks “unacceptable,” according to Al Jazeera.
The United States says it has targeted military logistics infrastructure, Al Jazeera reported. Iranian media and officials, however, have accused Washington of hitting civilian sites, especially in southern coastal areas near Hormuz.
According to Iranian officials and media cited by Al Jazeera, US strikes hit road and rail links including the Kahurestan Bridge near Bandar Abbas, six bridges in Bandar Khamir county, the Aq Taqeh Khan railway bridge in Golestan province and rail networks between Tehran and Mashhad. Reports from Iran said a strike on the Bandar Abbas area caused multiple deaths and sent one vehicle off a bridge.
Iranian reports also said Shahid Baghaei Hospital in Ahvaz was rendered unusable, forcing the evacuation of more than 200 patients. Al Jazeera reported strikes on a bottled water facility in Musian, desalination plants in Bonji village and Bomani, and wheat storage facilities in Khuzestan province.
Airports, ports and communications infrastructure have also been reported hit. Iranian officials said Iranshahr airport was attacked, injuring one person and damaging electrical facilities and a fuel tank, while Iranian media reported damage at airports in Semnan and Jam, piers in Sirik, Bandar Abbas and Asaluyeh, Kish commercial harbour, and communications towers in Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island.
Al Jazeera also reported damage to residential areas in Bandar Abbas, an environmental protection station in Hajiabad, a search-and-rescue station in Kish and a wastewater treatment plant at Bandar Abbas’s Bird Garden. An Al Jazeera investigation found extensive damage at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, while authorities said the facility remains functional; the partly built Darkhovin nuclear facility was also hit, according to Al Jazeera.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it is targeting US military assets, according to Al Jazeera. Officials in Kuwait said Iranian attacks struck a power and water desalination plant repeatedly and hit an oil facility, while Qatari officials said a child was injured by falling debris in Doha after interceptors responded to Iranian missiles. Al Jazeera reported that several commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz off Oman were hit for using routes Iran had not authorised.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.