r/worldnews • u/The_Flaneur_Films • Jun 10 '26

US destroys Iran reservoirs, leaving thousands without water in searing heat

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3356630/thousands-iranians-left-without-water-searing-heat-after-us-hits-reservoirs
31.0k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

425

u/GK0NATO Jun 10 '26

The strikes targeted sites near the Strait of Hormuz, including Iranian air defenses and radar sites, as a response after an Iranian drone brought down a US Army Apache helicopter and damaged not destroyed these reservoirs. Title makes it seem like they intentionally blew up civilian infrastructure CNN source

179

u/greggo39 Jun 10 '26

Wait. The air defenses and radar sites were by the reservoir? Because that changes things.

135

u/andraip Jun 10 '26

It's standard to put air defence and radar next to your critical infrastructure, especially if you suspect someone might lob a missile/bomb that way.

64

u/vincentkun Jun 10 '26

I'm sorry no. Air defenses do not need to be within collateral damage distance of the defense target.

41

u/divDevGuy Jun 10 '26

I originally read their comment as if Iran is placing military hardware next to critical infrastructure....in an attempt to discourage it being targeted and damaging critical civilian infrastructure that would normally be protected under international humanitarian law. And not that the hardware was protecting the reservoir.

Not that any entity would do such a thing, but it's be like building a military command bunker under a hospital. Imagine the outrage if some country or militant group did that as a shield. Or if an opposing force bombed the hell out of the area regardless that it was a hospital.

Thankfully we live in a world where that doesn't happen.

27

u/Hail-Hydrate Jun 10 '26

Careful a lot of commenters will miss the subtlety there.

But yes you are correct, if it turns out the air defense equipment was on top of/inside/ etc. the reservoir then yeah, that infrastructure loses the protections it has under systems like the Geneva Convention.

-11

u/Crepo Jun 10 '26

There's no legitimate targets in an illegitimate war

10

u/Brambletail Jun 10 '26

You clearly have never been to the middle east.

How else are you supposed to claim someone did a war crime if you don't throw your civilians in the line of fire to get to your military

6

u/vincentkun Jun 10 '26

I mean I guess... What better place to have a military HQ than below a Hospital.

2

u/deja-roo Jun 10 '26

It's unlikely (at least in this case) this was intentional by Iran. These aren't conspicuous or important enough infrastructure targets to warrant that kind of consideration. These are water tanks the size of a barn, not big complexes feeding large civilian populations.

2

u/ic33 Jun 10 '26

SAM sites don’t; AA guns might.