Iran…Israel …Trump…3/7/2026…Destroying Iran to Save it?

A New York Times visual investigation indicates that the school was most likely hit by an American airstrike.

Mr. Trump had vowed in a morning social media post that the week-old onslaught on Iran would escalate and could expand to target new “areas and groups of people.”

Early Sunday, the Israeli military struck several Iranian fuel depots around Tehran, sending huge columns of fire and smoke climbing into the air and rocking the capital and the neighboring city of Karaj with explosions. The Israeli military said it had targeted the fuel depots because they were being used by Iran’s military.

Iran kept up its retaliatory strikes, sending missiles and drones into Arab states on the Persian Gulf. Air-raid sirens rang out in Bahrain and Qatar. The United Arab Emirates reported on Saturday evening that the country’s forces were intercepting Iranian missiles and drones entering its territory. Saudi Arabia reported it had intercepted several drones.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that it had launched attacks on American and Israeli targets, including sites in Haifa, Israel, and in Dubai’s marina area. Israel’s military confirmed it had detected at least two salvos of missiles heading from Iran toward the country.

Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, gave a televised speech to the nation on state television, aimed at projecting unity and shoring up his nation’s resolve to fight. He said the plan of Mr. Trump and his allies to break up Iran and instigate a mass uprising against the government had failed, adding, “America is stuck in the swamp of its own miscalculations.”

Here’s what else we’re covering:

• Sad homecoming: Mr. Trump watched solemnly as the remains of the American service members killed in the U.S. war with Iran arrived in the United States on Saturday in Delaware. The six Americans were Maj. Jeffrey R. O’Brien, Capt. Cody A. Khork, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M. Marzan, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens and Sgt. Declan J. Coady. They were killed last Sunday in an Iranian drone attack in the Shuaiba port in Kuwait.

• Pentagon tight-lipped: The details of American attacks on Iran on Saturday remained unclear. Senior U.S. officials last briefed the public on the fighting two days ago. On Friday, the U.S. military released a statement saying that U.S. forces had struck at least 3,000 targets since the war began last weekend, up sharply from 2,000 strikes earlier this week, but provided few details.

• Death toll: The death toll in Iran also remained shrouded in uncertainty. Earlier this week, the Red Crescent Society had said nearly 800 people had been killed, but it has not provided an official update to that figure in recent days. On Friday, Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. put the number of dead at over 1,300.

• Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said in a televised address that Israel “still has many more targets” to strike in Iran to destabilize its government “and allow for change.” His remarks suggested that there was no immediate end to the conflict in sight. “We are continuing at full power,” he said.

• Beirut attacks: Israel said just before midnight local time that it had begun a new wave of airstrikes in the Dahiya, the densely populated cluster of neighborhoods south of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold. The announcement followed a string of rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah into northern Israel on Saturday.

• Intelligence report: A report by the National Intelligence Councilcompleted before the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran predicted that even a large-scale military assault on the country would be unlikely to topple its theocratic government, according to U.S. officials briefed on the work.

• Iranian president’s comments: In a speech on Saturday, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, sought to blunt anger at Iran in the Arab world by apologizing to Persian Gulf nations for launching strikes into their territories. That comment appeared to prompt Mr. Trump to claim Iran had “surrendered to its Middle East neighbors.” It also drew criticism from hard-liners in Iran, opening a window on a divide among Iran’s ruling elite. Mr. Pezeshkian later modified his position. “We have not attacked our friendly and neighboring countries,” he said on social media. “Rather, we have targeted U.S. military bases, facilities, and installations in the region.”…..

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The Guardian….

• Donald Trump, speaking in Florida to leaders of Latin American countries at his golf resort in Miami, said US strikes on Iran have significantly damaged the country’s military capabilities, claiming American forces have destroyed 42 Iranian navy ships in three days.

• Lebanon’s official National News Agency, citing figures from the country’s health ministry, reported that 41 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the eastern Bekaa valley. The Israeli military again warned people south of the Litani river in southern Lebanon to leave, saying the Israeli military is operating with “great force” in the area.

• Trump wore a Trump-branded golf cap during the ritual dignified transfer of remains at Dover air force base in Delaware on Saturday, as the commander-in-chief paid his respects to six army reserve soldiers killedin Kuwait in an Iranian strike.

• In a post on Truth Social, the US president renewed his criticism of the UK’s lack of immediate support for US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and claimed Downing Street was now “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember,” he wrote. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

• Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, on his way back to Florida from Dover air force base in Delaware, Trump was asked whether he expects to return there for more dignified transfer ceremonies for US troops killed in the war with Iran he launched last Saturday. “Oh yeah, I’m sure,” he replied. “I hate to do them, but it’s a part of war, isn’t it?”

• When asked whether the US bombed a girls’ elementary school in Iran, killing more than 175 people, many of them children, Trump claimed that detailed forensic reporting that indicates the US was responsible is wrong. “No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump said without offering any evidence for his claim.

• Trump also didn’t rule out deploying US troops to secure Iran’s enriched uranium. When asked about whether he would deploy ground troops in Iran, the president said “possibly” but that there would “have to be a very good reason”. He was then asked whether he might send ground troops into Iran to secure its nuclear facilities. “We wouldn’t do it now. Maybe we’d do it later on,” he replied.

• Since the start of US and Israeli airstrikes, more than 6,000 civilian structures across Iran have sustained damage, according to a social media statement from Pir Hossein Kolivand, president of the Iranian Red Crescent.

• The president of the UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, gave his first public comments since Iran launched retaliatory strikes at the Gulf nation. “The UAE has thick skin and bitter flesh – we are no easy prey,” he said.

• Iran’s foreign minister warned in a statement that Trump had misinterpreted the statement by Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in which he apologized to neighboring Gulf states and promised to stop strikes against them, unless an attack against Iran originated from those countries. He said Netanyahu ‘managed to dupe’ Trump ‘into fighting Israel’s wars’

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ISW…Iran Update Morning Special Report, March 7, 2026

• Iran continued drone and ballistic missile attacks on Gulf states despite President Masoud Pezeshkian’s order to suspend strikes unless attacks on Iran originated from their territory.
• The combined force has continued to target Basij bases in Tehran to degrade the regime’s ability to maintain domestic control. The Basij is a paramilitary force that is responsible for civil defense and social control. Commercially available satellite imagery shows that the combined force has targeted at least nine of the 23 Basij regional bases in Tehran as of March 6.
• The combined force struck two Artesh airbases in Esfahan Province on March 7 to suppress and destroy Iranian air defenses over the province and extend air dominance into central Iran. The combined force has established air superiority over Tehran and has likely done so over parts of western Iran.
• The combined force struck an unidentified vehicle at the Mount Kolang Gaz La facility, south of the Natanz Enrichment Complex, on March 6. The Institute for Science and International Security reported that US-Israeli strikes targeted and destroyed a vehicle at the Mount Kolang Gaz La facility, citing March 6 satellite imagery. The Institute assessed that the vehicle may be related to air defense, but ISW-CTP could not come to an independent conclusion based on the available evidence….

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Trump turns to Europe for support in his Iran War…

The White House is not exactly trying to forge a coalition of the unwilling. Washington did not consult European allies before the attack and has not asked them to join in bombing Tehran. But the administration wants access to strategic European air bases and logistics hubs to facilitate its aerial barrage. And Trump is rebuking countries that don’t offer unflinching support, like Britain, or anyone who takes a forceful stand against the war, namely Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.