Iran Downplays Coastal Damage as U.S. Third-Round Iran Strikes Wind Down

Iranian state media and provincial officials moved to minimize the damage from the third round of U.S. Central Command strikes on Iran's southern coast, hours after the operation targeted air surveillance radars and missile and drone storage sites tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' maritime attack network. Bushehr's deputy governor Ehsan Jahanian told IRNA that no casualties had been reported from strikes on Bushehr, Asaluyeh and Dayyer, blaming the loudest local blasts on Iran's own air-defense response. State broadcaster reports later said the situation in Bandar Abbas, Sirik and Jask was calm despite earlier reports of multiple explosions and air-defense activations across Khuzestan and along the Hormuz coast. The IRGC navy kept insisting the Strait of Hormuz was closed until U.S. interference ends, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran had made a poor choice and would now pay. Iran's public downplaying serves the regime's face-saving needs and does not remove Israel's interest in seeing IRGC coercion capability actually degraded.