With military operations kicking back up in Iran, ABC chief international correspondent James Longman joined Friday’s World News Tonight to play up the possibility that U.S. has committed, or is about to commit, war crimes.
Longman began by recapping recent days’ events, “CENTCOM has tonight released this footage of a strike on a surveillance tower at an Iranian port, which they say the regime used to track and target commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Although the White House says the strait is open to shipping, maritime tracking shows the reality is that only a handful have been able to pass through under the threat of Iranian attack. And after President Trump's threat to strike at civilian infrastructure next week, Iranian state media reports two bridges being hit by U.S. airstrikes, as well as a train station and an airport.”
ABC's chief international correspondent James Longman tries to bring back war crime accusations, "President Trump's threat to strike at civilian infrastructure next week, Iranian state media reports two bridges being hit by U.S. airstrikes, as well as a train station and an… pic.twitter.com/dKKSNmLQTq
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 18, 2026
He then added, “Legal experts say striking civilian targets could be a war crime. CENTCOM says they never target civilians.”
Bridges, train stations, and airports can all be used for military purposes.
In Trump’s “threat to strike at civilian infrastructure,” Trump threatened “next week comes the power plants” and “next week comes the bridges.” As Longman noted, the U.S. has already started hitting bridges. Power plants can also be considered military targets, and the U.S. has historically hit them with graphite bombs, which are designed to disable electrical grids but are considered non-lethal.
What is not up for debate is that Iran actually is hitting civilian infrastructure in non-belligerent countries, but Longman didn’t throw the phrase “war crime” around for that. Instead, he simply reported, “Iran is still firing back with alerts in Qatar, Jordan, and Bahrain and major damage to a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait today that forced the government there to advise citizens to conserve energy while they stabilize the grid.”
War crimes are real things, and Iran has spent this war committing scores of them. From attacks on neutral shipping to attacks on civilians. The American media should focus more on that than launching into unfounded allegations against the U.S. military.
Here is a transcript for the July 17 show:
ABC World News Tonight
7/17/2026
6:41 PM ET
JAMES LONGMAN: Mary, CENTCOM has tonight released this footage of a strike on a surveillance tower at an Iranian port, which they say the regime used to track and target commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Although the White House says the strait is open to shipping, maritime tracking shows the reality is that only a handful have been able to pass through under the threat of Iranian attack. And after President Trump's threat to strike at civilian infrastructure next week, Iranian state media reports two bridges being hit by U.S. airstrikes, as well as a train station, and an airport.
Legal experts say striking civilian targets could be a war crime. CENTCOM says they never target civilians.
And Iran is still firing back with alerts in Qatar, Jordan, and Bahrain and major damage to a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait today that forced the government there to advise citizens to conserve energy while they stabilize the grid. Mary.
