Fighting between the United States and Iran has widened, with the U.S. military striking a broader range of targets and moving jet fighters into the Middle East while Tehran launches attacks across the Persian Gulf, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The clash centers on control of the Strait of Hormuz, and this round has raised fears of a return to a larger war. According to the Journal, the U.S. is hitting bridges and other interior targets to pressure Iran to halt attacks on Gulf shipping, after a deal to reopen the waterway collapsed last week. Oil prices have risen more than 10% this week.
Saeid Golkar, an Iran security expert at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, told the Journal the situation is slipping loose, with the paper warning it's "raising fear of an escalatory spiral that gets out of hand."
"This escalation is rapidly intensifying and getting out of control," he said. "There is a risk we will go back to a total war even if neither side wants it."
The U.S. has now carried out seven consecutive days of strikes, the Journal reported. U.S. Central Command said Friday the latest round was "designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities." Recent targets have included bridges meant to cut off Bandar Abbas, the port that normally handles 90% of Iran's container traffic, along with coastal radar, air defenses and missile and drone storage sites. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a photo of a collapsing communications tower at Chabahar, Iran's only deep-water ocean port.
Iran has answered by widening its own attacks. Kuwait said Iranian strikes damaged a power and desalination plant and reported intercepting 32 drones since Thursday. Tehran has also struck Qatar, Oman and shipping near Iraq's ports.
Meanwhile, Trump offered his own questionable assessment in a primetime address Thursday.
"We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly," he said.