The United States has struck near Tabriz, Iran’s fourth-largest city, pushing the geographic scope of the conflict further north than any previous operation in this current phase of hostilities. Tabriz sits in Iran’s northwestern corner, closer to Turkey and Azerbaijan than to Tehran, which makes its targeting a meaningful escalation in range and strategic intent.
Between March and June 2026, multiple strikes in and around Tabriz hit military installations, transport infrastructure, and a petrochemical facility. A strike reported on June 8 caused no casualties, suggesting U.S. forces may be calibrating some operations to degrade infrastructure rather than personnel.
The financial war running parallel to the military one
While aircraft hit bridges and military sites in Tabriz, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto exchange, on June 2, 2026, for allegedly facilitating financial flows tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In June 2025, hackers lifted roughly $90 million from the exchange, targeting wallets holding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and TRON. The breach exposed how deeply Iranian entities had embedded crypto into their financial architecture as a sanctions workaround.
