Hormozgan Province

Hormozgan Province is Iran's southernmost province, stretching along the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman coastline. Its capital, Bandar Abbas, is the headquarters of the IRGC Navy and Iran's largest commercial port. The province contains Qeshm Island and Larak Island, both integral to Iran's maritime defence posture, and sits astride the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of global oil supply transits.

Since the conflict began in March 2026, Hormozgan has been a primary theatre of operations. Hengaw's fifth report identified the province as recording Iran's highest civilian toll, driven by the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab , which killed 165 children and staff. CENTCOM struck hardened Iranian anti-ship missile batteries on the Hormuz coastline with GBU-72 bunker-buster munitions . Israel killed IRGC Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri in a 3am airstrike on Bandar Abbas in late March . The province absorbed a further power blackout across Bandar Abbas, Konarak and Chabahar on 8 July, and on 17 July, as CENTCOM's air campaign crossed for the first time into Iran's interior at Ahvaz and Yazd, Iranian state media reported bridge strikes within Hormozgan killed at least eight people and wounded 20, alongside a strike on Bandar Abbas that killed a mother and injured an infant; neither toll has been independently corroborated.

The province's strategic weight is geometric: whoever controls its coastline controls the chokepoint linking the Persian Gulf to global oil markets. The IRGC's toll system, charging vessels up to $2 million per Hormuz transit via Larak Island, was built by Tangsiri. His death came hours before Iran's Parliament began codifying that system into permanent law.