Signs Point At New And More Deadly Iran War On The Horizon
Iran is threatening to unleash devastating attacks against civilian infrastructure and American warships across the Persian Gulf if President Donald Trump launches another major offensive against the Islamic Republic.
Francis Kapper·Oct 27, 2026·7 min read
🌐Foreign Affairs
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Iran is threatening to unleash devastating attacks against civilian infrastructure and American warships across the Persian Gulf if President Donald Trump launches another major offensive against the Islamic Republic.
Tehran has warned that Gulf airports, pipelines and other civilian facilities could become targets if the United States and Israel renew their air campaign, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with diplomatic warnings. The threats follow a massive American military buildup as both countries brace for a possible escalation after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
“The forces pulling matters toward another round of war are much stronger than the forces pushing back,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, previously told the DCNF.
The warnings follow an exclusive report revealing that American military operations against Iran could rapidly intensify, according to a senior military official who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Things are about to get spicy,” the senior military official told the DCNF.
Meanwhile, the death toll of the Iran War continues to climb.
The war has killed 21 American service members, including 11 from hostile action, and wounded another 865, according to the Pentagon’s Operation Epic Fury
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Signs Point At New And More Deadly Iran War On The Horizon — IJR
American and Israeli strikes have also killed at least 3,636 people in Iran, including 1,701 civilians and at least 254 children, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. The figures cover the fighting through April 7 and exclude casualties from subsequent offensives.
Iranian attacks have also killed at least 13 people in the United Arab Emirates, including 10 civilians, according to the UAE Ministry of Defense in May. Separately, an Oct. 10 attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels killed 12 people, including an American citizen, and wounded 309 others at Saudi Arabia’s main international airport in Riyadh, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Iranian officials have threatened to sink American warships and kill their crews, while expanding attacks against neighboring Gulf countries’ economic infrastructure, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the communications.
Iran-backed militias previously struck Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline in September, destroying one pumping station and damaging two others along the critical oil-export route, Reuters reported.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels also damaged Saudi Aramco’s massive Abqaiq oil-processing complex in July, with satellite imagery confirming damage to the facility, the Associated Press reported.
Tehran is threatening American technology investments as well. Iran could target data centers, artificial intelligence facilities and undersea communications cables if fighting intensifies, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Drop Site News.
Iranian drones previously struckAmazon Web Services (AWS) facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in March. The attacks disrupted cloud services and caused permanent losses of some customer data, with AWS acknowledging in September that it could not restore access to certain affected data, according to the company.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Brig. Gen. Yadollah Javani separately warned that seven major undersea internet cables running through the Strait of Hormuz could become targets if American attacks damaged Iranian infrastructure, according to Iranian state broadcaster Press TV.
Severing the cables could disrupt financial transactions, cloud computing, government communications and other critical services, as more than 99% of international data traffic travels through undersea networks across the globe, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also warned that further fighting could endanger civilians throughout the region and disrupt the global economy in an opinion piece published by the Financial Times.
The massive American military buildup in the region could be pushing the Iranians to make these threats.
Approximately 9,000 additional sailors and Marines began deploying in late September aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and USS Makin Island amphibious ready group, potentially bringing the regional American naval presence to three aircraft carriers and more than 20,000 personnel by late October, the Associated Press reported, citing a U.S. official. However, the Roosevelt remained in the Philippine Sea and the Makin Island was in Japan as of October 26, according to USNI News.
American aerial refueling flights over the Middle East also increased roughly 50% during the first half of October compared with September, according to an open-source analysis published by IntelSky.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also made an unannounced visit to Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the allies discussed potentially resuming major military operations against Tehran, Axios reported, citing two sources familiar with the meeting.
Netanyahu previously pushed to resume major strikes against Iran ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 election, with Israeli forces preparing an offensive targeting nuclear facilities, military installations and civilian infrastructure, CNN reported, citing an Israeli security source. However, Trump opposed restarting the war before the Nov. 3 U.S. midterms, effectively derailing the plan, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. The prime minister’s office disputed the reporting.
Netanyahu also shared an AI-generated image depicting a nuclear explosion over Tel Aviv on X and Instagram just two days before Israel’s October 27 election. The accompanying message, originally written by Israeli commentator Yuval Bloomberg, warned that electing a leader incapable of confronting Iran could expose Israeli families to a “second Holocaust,” according to Netanyahu’s post.
The White House previously maintained that the United States would not launch new attacks before the midterms, Anna Kelly, principal deputy White House press secretary, told the DCNF.
Iran has already intensified its attacks on commercial shipping, recently claiming to have struck seven vessels near the Strait of Hormuz. Those particular claims remain independently unconfirmed, although the International Maritime Organization documented 121 confirmed maritime incidents and 24 seafarer fatalities across the Middle East as of October 27.
The attacks have rattled global oil markets, with Brent crude prices climbing above $117 per barrel last week, their highest level since April, before easing to approximately $116 on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Oil prices previously surged to $131 per barrel in September after attacks disrupted Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Washington is also taking precautions to protect Americans stationed throughout the region. The State Department ordered nonemergency American government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia on October 23 amid threats from Iran and its Houthi allies, according to its updated travel advisory.
American strikes have severely damaged Tehran’s military industry, with roughly 90% of Iran’s drone, missile and naval defense industrial base destroyed, according to Pentagon testimony from U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper.
However, Tehran insists it retains substantial retaliatory capabilities, including missiles and drones, Rezaei told Drop Site News.
Iranian missile and drone strikes have already damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at American military bases across eight Middle Eastern countries, according to the Pentagon inspector general. The attacks also severely damaged the Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, forcing American forces to relocate critical naval logistics operations, according to the inspector general.
Trump previously threatened to annihilate Iran if negotiations failed, while Tehran proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for American concessions, according to previous DCNF reporting and Trump’s remarks to the United Nations.
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