And?
NOBODY knows what US PresidentTrump’s goal IS in the ‘War’?
But?
Joint Chief of the Military Staff Caine (and probably the Intel Community) got it Right….
Messing with Iran was and is NOT a walk in the park …..
It is NOT getting President Trump what he wanted and even Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to have shifted his focus to Lebanon dealing with an Iran that is NOT changing leadership..…..
Middle Eastern countries are still fighting drone’s also as things have expanded …
Israel IS bombing Lebanon against Hezbollah and may send troops there….
The US ‘burn rate’ for weapons and other assets will see begging by Hegseth for more money from Congress as assets ARE moved from the Asian-Pacific to the Middel East….
We have the US Navy will escort ships thru the Strait of Hormuz ….And we Don’t….
Iran IS said to be continuing to mine the passage way which IS causing problem and pain in world oil and commerce availability …
And Russia IS making increased money off the oil problems from Trump’s war….
No ONE is talking about regime change anymore because it is NOT gonna happen it seems….
A US Air Force KC-35 refuelling tanker has gone down in the Iraq desert, NOT from hostile action...
NY Times….
U.S. Central Command said on Thursday a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft, which military officials said was part of the American war on Iran, had crashed in Iraq.
In a statement, Central Command said that an incident involving two aircraft “occurred in friendly airspace” and that one went down, while the other landed safely. Rescue efforts were underway, the statement said. The KC-135 has at least a three-person crew.
The KC-135s are among the most heavily used aircraft in the Air Force’s arsenal and among its oldest airframes. The planes are used to refuel all kinds of aircraft, including fighter jets, surveillance planes and cargo aircraft.
Air-to-air refueling missions are performed regularly by Air Force pilots, and mishaps are rare. But the maneuver is still challenging, especially in bad weather or high winds. Investigators suspect a midair collision may have caused the crash, but details are still murky, Air Force officials said. The inquiry is still going on, along with a search-and -rescue effort to locate the downed crew.
The western Iraq region where the plane crashed consists mostly of isolated desert.
Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf channel that carries 20 percent of the world’s oil, according to U.S. officials, a move that could exacerbate the disruptions to global shipping and further rattle the global economy.
The U.S. military said that while it had destroyed larger Iranian naval vessels, Iran began using smaller boats to lay mines on Thursday, according to a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence.
Earlier on Thursday, Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, had vowed to keep blocking the strait. Striking a defiant tone in his first public statement since succeeding his father, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, he promised to avenge “the blood of the martyrs.”
Oil prices have surged despite pledges by the United States and other major economies to calm markets by releasing emergency reserves.
The Israeli military launched a new wave of strikes on central Beirut and Tehran on Thursday evening, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air a few hundred yards from the Lebanese government’s headquarters and setting off air-defense systems across the Iranian capital.
In a news conference on Thursday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who earlier urged the Iranian people to rise up against their government, appeared to scale back the potential for regime change.
“We are creating the optimal conditions for the overthrow of the regime, but I can’t say for certain that the Iranian people would topple it,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “A regime is toppled from within.”
He added that even if the regime is not toppled, Iran will be “much weaker.”
Israel’s heavy bombardment of Beirut, in an area near hip bars, high-end restaurants and high schools, crystallized fears that the war in Lebanon was expanding beyond the southern outskirts of the capital, where Hezbollah has long held sway. It also deepened the sense that corners of the city once considered comparatively safe were no longer off-limits.
For Lebanese displaced by Israel’s evacuation orders and relentless bombardment, the strikes in Beirut spread fear and uncertainty. “I don’t feel like there is a safe place for us to go anymore,” said Hussain Mansour, 32, standing by the site of a strike in the seaside community Ramlet al-Baida. “Where? Where should we go?”
Here’s what else we are covering:
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Russia shipment: Russia has sent more than 13 metric tons of medicine to Iranian civilians on the orders of President Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations said on Thursday, in its first announcement of an aid shipment to Iran since the U.S.-Israeli strikes began. Moscow airlifted the aid in an IL-76 aircraft to Azerbaijan, where the medicine was handed over to Iranian officials for transport by land into Iran, the ministry said.
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Lebanon speech: Prime Minister Nawaf Salam gave a televised speech on Thursday evening, shortly after Israeli airstrikes rained on central Beirut. “We cannot, under any circumstances, accept that Lebanon once again becomes an open arena for the wars of others,” he said. It was a thinly veiled reference to the country’s history as a battleground in the widening confrontation between Hezbollah and its Iran-backed allies on one side, and Israel on the other.
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Death toll: Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Iravani, told the Security Council on Wednesday that more than 1,348 civilians had been killed in the country. Dozens have also died in Iranian drone and missile attacks on Gulf countries and Israel. In Lebanon, the Israeli bombardment has killed more than 680 people and displaced over 800,000, according to Lebanese officials. Among the casualties, nearly 100 children have been killed and 200,000 of them displaced, the international charity War Child said on Thursday. That means that roughly one in 10 children in Lebanon was among the displaced, the charity said.
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Tanker attacks: The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran claimed responsibility for attacking one of the two tankers off Iraq’s coast, a Marshall Islands-flagged ship that Iraqi officials said was owned by an American company. In a statement cited by Iranian state media, the Guards said the ship had “disobeyed and ignored” warnings. Chris Wright, the U.S. energy secretary, told CNBC on Thursday that the U.S. Navy could begin escorting ships through the strait by month’s end….
…
- The US and Israeli combined force has continued to target Iranian internal security, defense industrial, and military targets across Iran. ISW-CTP has observed strikes in 11 provinces since 3:00 PM ET on March 11.
- Iran is continuing to target commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz as part of its effort to disrupt maritime traffic and threaten freedom of navigation. Suspected improvised Iranian unmanned surface vessels (USV) hit the US-owned Marshall Islands-flagged SAFESEA VISHNU and the Malta-flagged ZEFYROS off the coast of Basra, Iraq, overnight on March 11 and 12.
- Iran continued to attack the Gulf States and Israel. Iran launched projectiles targeting civilian and oil infrastructure in the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
- Hezbollah has claimed 27 attacks targeting IDF forces and positions in northern Israel since ISW-CTP’s last data cutoff at 3:00 PM ET on March 11. Hezbollah’s 27 claimed attacks mark the highest number of attacks claimed by Hezbollah in an 18-hour period that ISW-CTP has observed since the start of the conflict.
- The IDF is preparing to expand its ground activity in southern Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Katz and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the IDF to prepare for an “expansion of IDF activity in Lebanon.”
…
The Guardian….
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US Central Command said it is carrying out rescue efforts after it lost a military refuelling aircraft in “friendly airspace” in Iraq, while saying neither hostile or friendly fire were to blame. A statement said “rescue efforts are ongoing” after an incident involving two planes, the second of which landed safely.
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Israel launched fresh strikes on Tehran and Beirut.
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Donald Trump said his war on Iran is “moving along very rapidly” and “doing very well”. He called Iran “a nation of terror and hate”, and said it is “paying a big price right now”.
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Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a veiled threat to kill Iran’s new supreme leader, saying he “wouldn’t take out life insurance policies” on Iran’s new ayatollah or the leader of Hezbollah. Using his first press conference since the start of the war to defend his joint military assault with the US against Iran, he said Israel aims to stop Iran from moving its nuclear and ballistic projects underground, and that some Israeli strikes have killed top Iranian nuclear scientists.
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The US Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will escort vessels through the strait of Hormuz when it is militarily possible, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent told Sky News. The plan to escort ships would go ahead as soon as the US has “complete control of the skies and … [Iran’s] rebuilding capabilities for the missiles completely degraded,” Bessent said.
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Trump said the Iranian national football team was “welcome” to participate at this summer’s World Cup – which is taking place in the US, Canada and Mexico – but, extraordinarily, added: “I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.” The US president didn’t elaborate on the nature of the risk.
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Six French soldiers engaged in counter-terrorism training with Iraqi partners were wounded after a drone attack in the region, France’s army said, as reported by Reuters.
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A US defence official has told BBC News that there were no significant injuries and all American soldiers stationed there remain on duty after a base, also in Erbil, northern Iraq, housing UK and US forces came under attack from an Iranian drone last night. No British soldiers were injured in the attack either, BBC News understands.
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A ballistic missile fired from Iran hit an open area in central Israel, causing no injuries, the IDF’s Home Front Command said, as quoted by Haaretz.
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Saudi Arabia’s defence forces said it intercepted a drone heading towards the Shaybah oil field (drones have been targeting the area regularly this week), as well as a ballistic missile and three drones launched towards the country’s eastern region.
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Qatar’s defence ministry has said that it intercepted two ballistic missiles, one cruise missile and multiple drones launched from Iran….
…
NY Post….
Iran’s war supplies left untouched by almost 2 weeks of bombiong by US and Israeli forces………
Iran’s military has shown off its enormous supply of naval suicide drones, which it is using to blockade the crucial Strait of Hormuz, in chilling footage taken from its underground “missile city.”
Footage from Iranian state media purportedly shows underground tunnels full of naval drones, anti-ship missiles, and sea mines, with dramatic footage also showing some of them being fired.
Experts have analyzed the footage, released by Iranian state media outlet Fars, telling CNN exactly what is being shown off.
The full terrifying array of armory on display includes:
- Abadil-2/3 “kamikaze” drones: Shown on rail launchers inside the tunnels, these are designed for deadly one-way strikes on ship sensors and superstructures.
- Shahed-136 drones: Primarily a land-attack drone, but naval versions shown inside the tunnels can be mounted on fast-attack craft or hidden launch racks to target coastal infrastructure and tankers.
- Zolfaqar drones: Small, explosive-laden autonomous boats designed to swarm larger naval vessels.
- Ghadir anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM): Long-range cruise missiles with a 190-mile range, shown on mobile truck launchers inside the tunnels.
- Nasr-1 (ASCM): Shorter-range, high-precision missiles designed for coastal defense, capable of being launched from speedboats or hidden bunkers.
- Khalij Fars (ASCM): Quasi-ballistic anti-ship missiles that Iran claims can hit moving targets at sea using an electro-optical seeker.
- Maham sea mines: Acoustic/magnetic influence mines, often seabed-mounted, that can detonate without direct contact, just by detecting the physical signatures of passing ships.
- Sadaf-02 sea mines: Contact mines that are often shown being loaded onto civilian-style dhow sailing vessels, or fast boats.
…
The US Military IS transferring assets from the Asian Pacific to the Middle East….
Again?
Hegseth WILL be going to Congress to ask for more money as he burns thru weapons, equipment, fuel and other things that have to be replaced….
Mark Cancian, who closely monitors U.S. inventories at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the shift away from these longer-range munitions will dramatically lower the price of each strike — from millions of dollars spent on each round fired to less than $100,000, in some cases.
As it churns through its inventories, the military also is rerouting assets from other parts of the world, including the Indo-Pacific region, where lawmakers have long feared that any U.S. conflict with China would be challenged by the Pentagon’s limited stocks of high-end weapons.
The Pentagon is moving parts of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system from South Korea to the Middle East, according to two officials. The military also is drawing from its supply of sophisticated Patriot interceptors in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere to bolster its defense against Iran’s drone and ballistic missile attacks, these people said.
One of the officials said the moves were not due to an immediate shortage of weaponry in the Middle East but were rather a precautionary measure in case Iran drastically increased its rate of retaliatory attacks, which has fallen more than a week into the conflict.
“The more THAADs and Patriots you shoot, the more risk you assume in the Indo-Pacific and in Ukraine,” Cancian said.
The two air defense systems are considered the most advanced in the world.
Ahead of the operation, Caine had warned Trump that an extended conflict with Iran could deplete U.S. stocks of precision weaponry, sapped after years of support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and the administration’s other military actions in at least seven countries, The Post has reported. The administration has sought to downplay Caine’s assessment.
Analysts have said they have been surprised at the sophistication of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, including its ability to target and at times overwhelm key parts of U.S. and Israeli air defense systems such as radars and command-and-control infrastructure…..
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U.S. sailors injured in fire aboard aircraft carrier supporting Iran war
The incident, in a laundry room on the USS Gerald R. Ford, is another setback during the ship’s extended deployment.
Meanwhile, these MAGA clowns ,who a few short weeks ago were decrying getting involved in “ foreign wars” , are all onboard Trumps war in Iran.
As requires constant reiteration,MAGA believes in nothing except hatred of “ libruls”( being defined as anyone who disagrees with their master,Trump)and whatever Trump tells them to believe at any given point in time.
And hating Muslims….
But?
THERE ARE GOPer’s AGAINST the Trump War even if YOU don’t want to acknowledge them
Another one of your pathetic lies.
I’ve never refused to uh “ acknowledge “ that there was some Republicans opposed to Trumps Iran adventure.
What I said was the you were wrong ( as usual) that people like Tucker Carlson ,Megyn Kelly ,etc who were questioning Trump on Iran had any great influence on MAGA .Such is quite obvious as shown by the fact that polling from every reputable source shows that like 90% of self described MAGA supporters fully support Trump.
So quit your pathetic lying.
I wlll keep pointing out the slippage in Trump support among GOPer’s who include MAGA’s
Trump’s War IS UNPOPULAR among some who can think on their own….
Yes
Most have trouble with THAT
Yeah Carlson and Kelly really “ think on their own.”
They’re nothing but two bit media whores that you are uh” pointing out.”They’ll be back lavishing praise on Trump soon enough.( Carlson was so upset by Trumps criticism of him that he had to pronounce that he “ loved” Trump).
Your problem is that you are so emotional on the subject of Trump that you grab at any criticism of him by anyone associated with him as meaning they are abandoning him and that such indicates he is losing support among MAGA when it is nothing more than a minor spat that will soon be healed.
You’ve been bloviating for years now about how Republicans were going to abandon Trump when in fact Trumps support among Republicans has remained remarkably consistent.
Maybe……
But the media talking heads reach MILLIONS of people and SOME of them DO follow their lead on some things…..
The Trump War IS Counter to even Donald’s OWN words 6 months ago….