In the early hours of 18 July 2026, four people were killed and two others injured when an alleged US airstrike collapsed the Shahid Mirzaei (Galugah) Tunnel on the road linking Bandar Abbas and Haji Abad in the Hormozgan Province, Iran.
Four men, 36-year-old Issa Jamizadeh, 29-year-old Shahin Lotf-Azar (Belivand), Mohammad Soltani, and 66-year-old Ghorbanali Kashkooli were reported killed, while Ghorbanali’s wife and daughter, who were not named in sources, were reported injured and were transferred to Shahid Mohammadi and Persian Gulf hospitals in Bandar Abbas for further treatment.
Remembering Shahin Lotf-Azar
Shahin Lotf-Azar (Belivand), who was 29 years old at the time of his death, according to his profile on the website Civilians in Iran, was a resident of Salehshahr, Gotvand County. He worked as an engineer and construction supervisor at the Payasanat Tiran Engineering Company and was a member of the Bakhtiari tribe, an ethnic group from western Iran.
According to an article by Sedehlenjan, Shahin was buried at the Golestan Martyrs' Garden of Varnamkhast. An image of Shahin, a bearded young man in a white shirt, was included in the article.
Remembering Issa Jamizdeh
Legal worker Issa Jamizdeh was reportedly traveling from his home in Rodan to his place of work in the Hormozgan Judiciary in Bandar Abbas at the time of his death. He was reportedly killed in his car by the blast wave, a few meters outside of the tunnel.
According to Fars News, Issa was a staff member of the Financial Justice Department. A portrait of a young bearded man, wearing a suit and a white shirt, on the backdrop of the Iranian flag, was included in the report.
According to a report by Anna Ram for Sobehsahel.com, "[Issa] had worked for around five years at the Hormozgan Judiciary, as head of the office for enforcement of judgments. His colleagues described him as committed, good-natured, responsible and someone who helped resolve people’s problems. He had recently completed a master’s degree in law and enrolled for doctoral studies, awaiting the admission result. He had been married for around two and a half years and lived with his wife in Fin.”
His widow, Samira Motesharei, told the reporter that on the afternoon of Thursday, Issa left the city of Fin for Bandar Abbas at the invitation of several childhood friends, intending to spend a few hours with them. Samira described having had an unusual sense of foreboding from the outset and repeatedly asked him to postpone the visit. She remembered that while he was polishing his shoes, he said: “Maybe I’ll go and be martyred…” The reporter wrote: “The sentence has now become the bitterest memory of his wife’s life.”
Their last conversation was around midnight, and then the family lost the connection with Issa. When the news on the attack of the tunnel emerged around 3:00 a.m., Samira’s brother, who had repeatedly called Issa without receiving an answer, headed to the scene. Minutes later, Samira’s phone rang. Her brother asked only one question: “What color was Issa’s ring?”
Samira said that “her heart sank at that moment and she understood that something terrible had happened. “She and her family went to the scene, where the young man’s car had been turned into a mass of metal by the blast wave a few meters after leaving the tunnel.
The body of Issa was laid to rest “after a magnificent funeral ceremony” in his home place, Bagh-Narges village, Rudan city, with the presence of the people, provincial and county officials, as reported by Navide Shahed.
Remembering Ghobanali Kashkool
Ghobanali Kashkool, was killed, and his wife and daughter were injured in the strike. He was a retired transtainer (crane) operator with the BETA Port and Maritime Services Development Company, which made a public statement mourning his death.
In this statement posted on its Instagram account @iranbeta, the company said: “With the deepest sorrow and grief, the news of the martyrdom of Qorbanali Kashkuli, a retired and veteran employee of Beta Marine and Port Services Development Company, has caused profound sadness throughout the Beta family. This respected colleague, who worked for many years as a transtainer operator and previously also worked within the holding company, was known among his colleagues for his good nature, decency, dedication, and friendly spirit, leaving behind many cherished memories. Martyr Qorbanali Kashkuli, aged 66, was martyred in the early morning of 27 Tir.” An image of a silver-haired man in glasses, wearing a white shirt, was added to the tribute.
A report by Anna Ram for Sobehsahel.com cited Red Crescent rescuers, who said that they had to go into the damaged tunnel, at great risk to themselves, to rescue survivors and recover the dead: “In the first minutes of the operation, they found a mother and her daughter beside the lifeless body of the father. They then began efforts to rescue the injured. That night, some ended their mission by transferring the wounded to hospital; others by recovering the bodies of those killed from crushed vehicles.” The mother and her daughter mentioned in this post were the wife and daughter of Ghobanali Kashkool.
Remembering Mohammad Soltani
On Instagram, @neda.soltani63 mourned the death of "martyr Mohammad Soltani " and offered "condolences to my dear cousins.” An image of a young bearded man dressed in a three-piece suit was added to the post.
Both Mohammad Soltani and Shahin Lotfazar were specialists working for contracting companies involved in the Bandar Abbas Oil Refining Development Project, according to public statements by the organizations involved cited by sources.
Circumstances of the incident
Instagram account @hormozgan_media posted an image of four corpses in bodybags, reportedly at the site of the attack. Mehr News posted a video showing a destroyed car, in which a person could be heard saying “those four are from this car.” A video posted by Mehr News showed a bulldozer in the process of clearing the road in a tunnel, reportedly following this attack.
According to IRIB News, the attack on the tunnel happened around 1:00 a.m. X/Twitter account @hey_itsmyturn reported that cars were trapped in the tunnel by the attack, and that the bombing took place at 22:53 UTC which was 2:23 a.m. local time. This report claimed that four fatalities were recovered and “several” people were transferred to hospital for treatment.
The affected road connects Bandar Abbas to central Iran and to Tehran, and tends to be a “bottleneck,” the blockage of which requires a major detour and causes significant disruptions to transport.
Where sources identified a belligerent, they attributed strikes to the United States military. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) declared the evening of July 16th that ”U.S. forces ended the seventh consecutive night of strikes against Iran on July 17 at 9:30 p.m. ET. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities. U.S. forces employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets." Due to the 7 and a half hour time difference between Iran and the east coast of the US, this would be during the early hours of July 18th in Iran. CENTCOM has not release any public statement about this specific incident, nor the corresponding civilian harm, at the time of publishing.