President Donald Trump expanded the scope of potential US targets on Friday, with Iranian banks and financial institutions entering the conversation as Iran itself had threatened to strike financial infrastructure across the Gulf region. Trump called Iranian leaders “deranged scumbags” and promised dramatically intensified strikes in the coming days, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened banks and financial institutions after an earlier airstrike hit a bank in Tehran. The financial dimension of the conflict added new anxiety to markets already rattled by the Strait of Hormuz crisis.
Iran had declared earlier in the week that it would target banks and financial institutions in the region in retaliation for a strike on a Tehran bank. On Friday, a building at Dubai’s International Financial Centre — an elite economic free zone home to banks, capital traders, and wealth managers — sustained damage when debris from an intercepted Iranian projectile struck it. The strike, even if technically intercepted, sent a stark signal about the vulnerability of the Gulf’s financial infrastructure to the ongoing conflict.
On the military front, combined US-Israeli forces have struck over 15,000 targets since the war began, with Israel alone carrying out more than 200 strikes in the most recent 24-hour period. Trump announced late Friday that US Central Command had completely obliterated every military facility on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export hub, and warned that oil infrastructure would be the next target if Iran continued to disrupt Strait of Hormuz shipping. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described Iran’s leadership as desperate, hidden underground, and led by a wounded and disfigured supreme leader.
The broader human cost of the conflict remains staggering. Iran has reported over 1,300 deaths. Lebanon has recorded more than 600 killed and 800,000 displaced, with eight more dying in an Israeli strike on Sidon Friday. Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, injuring about 60 people. Saudi Arabia intercepted close to 50 Iranian drones. Qatar issued Doha evacuation orders before missile interceptions. Two Omanis died in drone crashes. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched new coordinated strikes on Israel with Hezbollah as part of al-Quds Day.
Thirteen American service members have been killed in the conflict, including six in a tanker aircraft accident over Iraq. France lost one soldier in Iraq to a pro-Iranian militia drone. Tehran residents described a city of continuous explosions, power failures, rubble, and trapped civilians desperate to flee but unable to due to fuel shortages. European governments quietly sought diplomatic back-channels with Tehran aimed at securing safe passage for commercial ships through the increasingly dangerous Strait of Hormuz, while Trump threatened further escalation that could cut off one-fifth of global energy supplies.