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United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on July 17 that its forces destroyed a maritime control tower at Iran’s Chabahar Shahid Kalantari Port a day earlier.
“On July 16, US forces successfully destroyed the Chah Bahar Shahid Kalantari Port surveillance tower, part of a maritime surveillance network along Iran’s Gulf of Oman coastline used for decades by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to track and target commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” the command said on X.
“The destruction of the tower directly degrades IRGC’s ability to coordinate attacks on innocent civilian crew members,” it added.
The command noted that the strike was intended to protect freedom of navigation in regional waters for commercial shipping, while noting that vessels attempting to violate the ongoing U.S. naval blockade against Iran would not be covered by those protections.
The Chah Bahar Shahid Kalantari Port tower, which overlooks the Strait of Hormuz, had been hit by U.S. strikes at least twice previously, sustaining heavy damage.
Iran’s state-run IRNA confirmed the collapse of the tower before CENTCOM’s announcement but did not report any casualties.
The agency said cargo loading and unloading operations at Shahid Kalantari Port are expected to resume shortly and that port services will continue.
The largely symbolic strike will not affect Iranian military operations in the Strait of Hormuz. The tower was likely evacuated even before it was struck the first time.
Still, the U.S. strike represents another attack on civilian infrastructure in Iran, and because of that, the Islamic Republic is likely to respond.
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