Month: March 2026

Jerusalem Post – Israel strikes across Iran, kills Basij intel. chief, IRGC spox. among others

The IDF killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Basij militia’s intelligence chief, Esmail Ahmadi, in a strike in central Tehran, the military announced on Friday.

Ahmadi was killed in the strikes that targeted other senior Basij militia members, including commander Gholamreza Soleimani and his deputy Seyyed Karishi, earlier this week.

The IDF announcement followed a series of Israeli strikes targeting the Iranian regime’s infrastructure across Tehran during the early morning hours on Friday.

IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini was later confirmed killed in the strikes.

Naini, who also served as the IRGC’s Public Relations Array chief, held several propaganda and public relations roles and served as the group’s “main propagandist” for the past two years, the IDF stated.

“In his role, Naini disseminated the regime’s terrorist propaganda to its proxies across the Middle East in order to influence and advance terror attacks against the State of Israel from the different fronts,” the IDF stated. “Naini’s elimination joins a series of eliminations of dozens of senior figures of the Iranian regime during the operation.”

A second wave of strikes targeted Nur, east of Tehran, the military confirmed on Friday afternoon.

The Friday operation also included two consecutive strikes on weapons production sites and ballistic missile launcher storage facilities located in Tehran, the military said.

“Overnight, the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, completed two waves of strikes in Tehran and in central Iran, during which dozens of military infrastructure belonging to the Iranian terror regime were struck,” the IDF said in a statement.

The IDF also confirmed on Friday the death of Mehdi Rastami Sh’mastan, a key commander in the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. Sh’mastan was killed in a Wednesday strike in Tehran.

“Sh’mastan was considered a key figure in promoting terrorist activities against Israeli and Jewish civilians around the world. In recent years, he was responsible for advancing and executing terror attacks against key Israeli targets,” the military said.

Israeli strikes burn vessels in Bandar-e Lengeh, IRGC-affiliated outlet claims
Video footage shared by N12 News appears to show explosions in the Iranian capital. The outlet also reported strikes in other cities, including Parchin, Kerman, Arak, and Bandar-e Lengeh. Additional footage shared by Israeli outlet appeared to show a Basij headquarters in Semnan being hit.

Some of these strikes were corroborated by Iranian media. At least 16 “commercial and civilian barges” belonging to Iranian civilians were burned in an “American-Zionist airstrike” on Bandar-e Lenger, the IRGC-affiliated outlet Tasnim News Agency claimed.

Also on Friday, reports indicated that a Thursday evening attack at a checkpoint in Tabriz killed 13 members of the IRGC’s Basij militia and injured 18 others.

Strikes across Iran on Thursday damage over 130 regime infrastructure sites
On Thursday night, the military stated that it had struck more than 130 infrastructure sites belonging to the Iranian regime.

The targets included ballistic missile sites, UAVs, and defense systems across Western and central Iran.

“The Israel Air Force continues to strike in western and central Iran to reduce to the fullest extent possible the scope of fire toward the State of Israel and to expand its aerial superiority over Iran,” the military said at the time.

Meanwhile, US Central Command on Thursday posted satellite imagery of the Karaj Surface-to-Surface Missile Plant, showing the damage caused after the US military conducted a strike on the facility on March 11, comparing it to earlier images of before the strike occured.

Additionally, the Human Rights Activists News Agency collated the casualties in Iran since operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury began on February 28.

At least 3,186 people have been killed in the three weeks of strikes, HRANA’s data showed, including 1,394 civilians, at least 210 of whom were children, 1,153 “military” fatalities, and 639 “unclassified” fatalities.

HRANA’s data did not distinguish between those killed in Israeli or US strikes.

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Onlinekhabar – Over 3,100 killed since war began in Iran: HRANA

Since the outbreak of the conflict, over 3,100 people have lost their lives in Iran.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has released a new update on the death toll in the country.

According to the agency, a total of 3,186 people have been killed since the war started on February 28.

HRANA reports that at least 1,394 of the dead are civilians, including a minimum of 210 children.

The agency also states that 1,153 military personnel have been killed, while an additional 639 fatalities remain unidentified.

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Gulf News – US‑Israel war on Iran, Day 21: UK to allow US to use bases against Iran attacks in Strait of Hormuz

Day 21 of the US‑Israel war with Iran sees the conflict spread beyond battle lines, with Israel’s heavy strikes on Iranian targets and Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone attacks keeping the Gulf on edge. The UAE and other regional states have intercepted threats, while global energy markets feel pressure and fears of wider escalation grow.

 

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BBC News – Iranian strikes on bases used by US caused $800m in damage, new analysis shows

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The Times of Israel – Iran hangs three convicted of killing police during January protests, judiciary says

The hangings, the first officially announced executions related to regime’s deadly crackdown on demonstrators, come as Tehran vows to treat citizens as ‘enemies’ if they again rally against regime

Iran executed three people on Thursday convicted of killing police officers and carrying out operations in favor of the United States and Israel during unrest earlier this year, the judiciary said.

These appear to be the first officially announced executions linked to the mass anti-regime protests that broke out in Iran late last year. The demonstrations initially focused on the rising cost of living before morphing into nationwide anti-government rallies that peaked on January 8 and 9.

The protests were met with a deadly regime crackdown, with activist groups’ estimates of the total number of people killed reaching into the tens of thousands.

Facing pressure from US President Donald Trump, in mid-January, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said of the many thousands arrested, “There is no plan for hanging.”

But after the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28, Iran warned of harsher consequences for protesters if demonstrations reignite. Israel and the US have called on Iranians to rise up against the regime.

“Three individuals convicted in the Dey (January) unrest, on charges of murder and operational actions in favor of the Zionist regime and the United States, were hanged this morning,” the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website said regarding Thursday’s executions.

The individuals were involved in the killing of two law enforcement personnel, Mizan said, adding that their execution was carried out after they were found guilty of the capital offense of “moharebeh,” or “waging war against God.”

Iranian authorities claim the protests began in late December as peaceful demonstrations before turning into “foreign-instigated riots” involving killings and vandalism.

Tehran has acknowledged that more than 3,000 people died during the unrest, including members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, and has attributed the violence to “terrorist acts.”

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), however, has recorded more than 7,000 killings, the vast majority of them protesters, while warning the toll could be far higher. US President Donald Trump has claimed the number is more than 35,000.

The regime’s attack on protesters came despite warnings from Trump. After the crackdown, Trump said he would intervene if Iran started executing protesters, and claimed that hundreds of planned executions had been called off due to his pressure.

The US and Israel later launched strikes on Iran after unsuccessful US-Iranian negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program, sparking the current war.

Israel and the US have killed many of Iran’s senior security officers and political officials, and targeted members and infrastructure of the agencies that carried out the January crackdown. But Iran’s internal security services are believed to still be functioning, and have threatened to treat any further protesters as “enemies” amid the war.

“All our forces are also ready, with their hands on the trigger, prepared to defend their revolution,” national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said in comments aired by state broadcaster IRIB last week.

Iran has ​executed ​scores of ⁠people it has accused of links ​to Israel — which it frequently vows to destroy — and ​to the Mossad spy agency. One such execution was announced on Wednesday of someone detained during the June 2025 war between Israel and Iran. The previous officially announced execution of an alleged Israeli spy took place January 7.

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Barrons – Iran Hangs Three Men In First Executions Over January Protests

Iran executed three men on Thursday who were accused of killing police officers during protests in January, with activists warning of the risk of a new surge in hangings as war rages with Israel and the United States.

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BSS News – Iran hangs three convicted of killing police in recent unrest: judiciary

Iran executed three people on Thursday convicted of killing police officers and carrying out operations in favour of the United States and Israel during unrest earlier this year, the judiciary said.

These would be the first officially announced executions related to the protests which broke out in Iran late December against the rising cost of living before morphing into nationwide anti-government demonstrations that peaked on January 8 and 9.

“Three individuals convicted in the Dey (January) unrest, on charges of murder and operational actions in favour of the Zionist regime and the United States, were hanged this morning,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.

The individuals were involved in the killing of two law enforcement personnel, Mizan said, adding that their execution was carried out after they were found guilty of the capital offence of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”.

Iranian authorities said the protests began in late December as peaceful demonstrations before turning into “foreign-instigated riots” involving killings and vandalism.

Tehran has acknowledged that more than 3,000 people died during the unrest, including members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, and attributed the violence to “terrorist acts”.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), however, has recorded more than 7,000 killings, with the vast majority protesters, while warning the toll could be far higher.

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Bloomberg – Iran Defies Trump With Energy Strikes As War Costs Rise

Iran stepped up its assault on key oil and gas infrastructure across the Middle East, defying US President Donald Trump’s calls for restraint and triggering a fresh surge in energy prices that have highlighted the cost of the ever-widening conflict.

The Islamic Republic targeted sites in countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates with a wave of drone and missile attacks on Thursday, a retaliation for Israel’s assault on Iran’s giant South Pars gas field the previous day.

The sharp escalation, with the bombing of more energy facilities from both sides, threatened to draw in both Gulf and European powers and exposed tensions between the US and Israel.

For Washington, the costs of the conflict it launched against Tehran alongside Israel were becoming clearer as the war neared the end of its third week. On Thursday, Iran said its air defense “seriously damaged” a US F-35 stealth fighter, with US Central Command saying one of the jets made an emergency landing and the pilot was in stable condition

The Pentagon also asked Congress for an additional $200 billion to pay for the war against Iran, a person familiar with the matter said. The enormous funding request suggested the US was girding for a protracted conflict, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth downplayed concerns and said the US was “on plan” with its war aims.

“It takes money to kill bad guys,” Hegseth said in a combative news conference where he denied “that we’re somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or quagmire.”

But with no end in sight, oil and gas prices soared once again, and bonds tumbled amid widening fears the war will stoke inflation and hurt economic growth. Equities in Asia and Europe extended losses, though US stocks staged a sharp recovery late in the session as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would help the US open the Strait of Hormuz.

Yet the vital waterway remained effectively shut, even as Iran assault on regional energy facilities continued. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi vowed in a post on X to show “ZERO restraint” if the country’s energy infrastructure was hit again.

As part of the barrage, Saudi Arabia said a drone hit its Samref refinery on the Red Sea, a vital exit route for the world’s biggest oil exporter, while the kingdom said it also shot down ballistic missiles fired toward the capital, Riyadh.

Qatar reported “extensive damage” at the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export plant and the UAE shut a major gas facility due to falling debris from missiles. Two oil refineries in Kuwait were struck by drones that caused fires, according to Kuwait Petroleum Corp. Iraq also reported a loss of power generation after Iran halted gas supplies from South Pars in the wake of the Israeli attack.

The latest attacks increased the potential for other countries to join the conflict. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud warned overnight that the kingdom’s restraint isn’t “unlimited,” and warned it could take military action.

“It could be a day, two days, or a week,” he told reporters in Riyadh, adding the relationship between the kingdom and Tehran has “completely shattered.”

The energy strikes also frayed close ties between the US and Israel, with Trump saying in a social media post late Wednesday that “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL” on South Pars. While he threatened the US “will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field” if Iran continued hitting Qatar, Trump also hit out at Netanyahu.

“I told him, ‘don’t do that.’ And he won’t do that,” Trump said Thursday at the White House, referring to Netanyahu.

On Thursday morning, Trump’s spy chief Tulsi Gabbard acknowledged the US and Israel had different goals in the Iran war. The US was focused more on degrading Tehran’s military, while Israel was focusing on eliminating the country’s leadership. In a briefing in Israel, Netanyahu said Israel would help US forces reopen Hormuz and acted alone in hitting Iran’s gas assets.

Still, Brent crude prices soared as high as $119 a barrel on Thursday before easing to end the session near $108 a barrel. Prices are now at the highest level since July 2022.

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Bloomberg – As the US and Israeli air campaign against Iran enters its third week, Tehran has continued to strike out across the Middle East.

Iranian drones and missiles have increasingly been aimed at economic and political targets, including energy infrastructure, data centers and airports, as Iran tries to disrupt oil and gas markets and inflict lasting damage on the economies of the US and its allies in the region.

The tactic is a demonstration of Iran’s desire — and ability — to hold out and fight back against a bigger, better armed adversary, according to Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The Iranians really established themselves as a regime capable of conducting asymmetrical activities,” Jones said. “I’m not surprised at Iran’s ability to continue doing this, because the Iranian regime, the way it’s been structured, is to withstand significant pressure.”

A Bloomberg News analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, an organization known as ACLED, shows 823 documented Iranian airstrikes, 483 of which were intercepted, since the war began on Feb. 28 through March 13. It also shows that 1,879 US and Israeli hits were recorded (1,661 by Israeli military and 218 by US forces), with at least 73 of those intercepted.

Iranian attacks have killed at least 30 people, according to official reports. US-Israeli strikes on Iran, meanwhile, killed 1,858 people during the first 12 days of fighting, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, and at least 700 others in Lebanon.

The 12-day US and Israeli war against Iran in June was measured. Tehran warned the governments in Washington and Doha in advance that it intended to target the Al Udeid Air Base — an American military facility — and both the US and Israel focused their strikes on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear installations.

This time is different.

The Islamic Republic is targeting economic, civilian, political and military sites in Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and Bahrain. It has also struck Cyprus and Azerbaijan, and NATO on Friday intercepted a third missile fired at Turkey from Iran – though Iran denied involvement.

The US and Israel, meanwhile, are mainly focusing their attacks on Iran’s leadership and entire military network, while also striking targets in Lebanon, where Iran has proxies.

Such a rapid widening of a conflict is “unprecedented,” said Clionadh Raleigh, a professor of political geography and conflict at the UK’s University of Sussex who also heads ACLED. “Even in World War II it wasn’t within days. That’s down to Iran’s response.”

“They may be running out of medium range and missile launchers but Iran has an endless number of pretty cheap drones,” she added of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They are “going to keep going until they have nothing left.”

Initially, Iran was mostly zeroing in on military infrastructure: interceptors, air defenses and communication systems, and bases. Then, it started hitting energy and water infrastructure, and airports.

In a statement read out on state TV on Thursday, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said that the plan now was to open “new fronts,” without providing details. He vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz — the world’s most important channel for energy shipments — shut.

“For Iran, victory is based on regime survival and some international agreement that agrees to a permanent cessation of hostilities with some economic relief also guaranteed,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.

“Hard to imagine that they can achieve that but those are the goals.”

The war has been experienced differently in each nation involved. In Lebanon, where there are no sirens to warn of incoming strikes, there’s chaos. In the Gulf, interceptors are shooting down many missiles in the sky, though some have landed with devastating effect.

Governments are banning live broadcasts and the sharing of photos and video that identify locations of damage. And satellite imaging companies like Planet Labs are releasing images with a 14-day delay so that they can’t be used for real-time military intelligence.

Among casualties in the Gulf are an 11-year-old girl in Kuwait who died from shrapnel wounds, and a woman killed after an Iranian assault on a residential building in Bahrain’s capital Manama in the second week of the conflict. The Iranian drone, which was reportedly heading for the US naval base in the small Gulf archipelago, hit the Breaker tower, leaving many of the high-rise’s top floors engulfed in flames.

Just two days into the war, Iran began targeting the biggest oil and gas assets in the Persian Gulf, launching missiles and drones at ports, pipelines and processing units.

Energy prices have surged, with oil making record moves — nearing $120 a barrel and sometimes falling just as quickly — as traders try to gauge the US and Israeli endgame.

In most cases, Iran has caused little direct damage, but its strikes have led to precautionary shutdowns and forces majeures. Operations were suspended at Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery, Aramco’s Ras Tanura plant, following an Iranian drone strike in the area.

For Kuwaitis, the hostilities are stirring up memories of two previous wars: the 1991 US-led Desert Storm operation to liberate the oil-rich nation from brutal Iraqi occupation and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which toppled Saddam Hussein.

Saad Rashed Al-Enezi lived through both. He said that while this latest conflict was expected, its scale and open-ended nature came as a surprise.

“In the first few days, people were really scared,” said the 65-year-old, who fought alongside the US army as a volunteer during the first Gulf War. But, he added, now many of them are continuing with some sense of normality, even though it’s been home schooling and work options for most.

The country’s pension fund headquarters — the Public Institution for Social Security — was hit on the night of March 7, causing an extensive fire that burned for hours across floors, in the heart of the capital.

Banks said employees would no longer be working in high rises, and operations were decentralized across branches. The pension fund also said it would continue activities from alternative sites and that all data had been backed up.

Two US military bases have also been targeted. At Camp Arifjan in southern Kuwait, satellite images show damage to radar systems.

And at Ali Al Salem Air Base, west of Kuwait City, fuel storage and aircraft hangers were hit, along with often expensive and rare radar systems that detect incoming missiles and drones.

“The damage is minimal compared to the huge firepower sent to us, though we do fear shrapnel and debris falling from the skies,” Al-Enezi said. “When will it finish, and at what cost?”

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The Financial Times – Since the US and Israel attacked Iran last month, people across the country have received text messages filled with everything from promises of imminent victory to exaggerated claims about American casualties.

But one message on Friday, addressed to the “people of Iran”, contained a warning. “The wicked enemy, desperate to achieve its goals in the battlefield, is once again seeking to instil fear and instigate street chaos,” it read.

“Internal traitors to the homeland” who take to the streets in collusion would face “a blow stronger than January 8”, the date Iranian security forces launched a deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters in which thousands of people were killed. The message ends with “#The_Final_Battle”.

Sent by the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the message is a stark example of the ways in which Iran’s media machine — in overdrive since the start of the war — is being deployed to contain any hint of domestic dissent.

Along with accounts of military triumphs and patriotic cartoons, state media, officials and commentators have deployed aggressive rhetoric, threatening to shoot protesters and confiscate property.

“Once the dust from all this sedition settles, we’ll grab you by the collar, one by one,” said a pro-regime figure on live television this week, addressing “liberals, supporters of the west and those in love with Zionism and imperialism”. “We’ll make your mothers mourn for you.”

There have been no signs of the sort of unrest that spread across the country in January, during which US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says more than 7,000 people were killed. Officials, who blamed armed foreign-backed agitators for the violence, put the death toll at over 3,000.

However, the US and Israel have repeatedly sought to incite another uprising, with President Donald Trump encouraging Iranians to use what “will be probably your only chance for generations” to take over the government.

Israel, meanwhile, has targeted police stations and security checkpoints with air strikes in a strategy Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said is designed to provide a “unique opportunity” to “overthrow the regime of the ayatollahs and gain your freedom”.

Iranian officials are taking no chances. Iran’s police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said anyone taking to the streets would be treated in the same manner as the country’s enemies, while lawmaker Salar Velayatmadar issued a stark threat directly to parents.

“It won’t be our fault if your sons and daughters won’t listen. The authority to open fire has been given,” Velayatmadar said in comments on state TV. “We don’t want your children to get killed, because they are ignorant. So make sure you control them.”

Supporters of the Islamic republic have held regular rallies since the start of the war — broadcast live on state TV — in shows of strength designed to project the regime’s control of the streets.

This included nationwide demonstrations on Friday to mark Quds Day, the last Friday of Ramadan, which went ahead even as Israeli air strikes targeted areas nearby.

Authorities have also pasted banners with pro-regime rhetoric across Tehran, including several depicting assassinated leader Ali Khamenei handing over Iran’s national flag to his son Mojtaba, who was selected as the new supreme leader this week. “The divine hand became visible,” it reads. “The young Khamenei emerged.”

AI-generated images of Mojtaba, who has not been seen in public and is believed to have been injured, have been widely used in pro-regime rallies and on social media platforms. One dramatised video, disseminated by Revolutionary Guards-affiliated outlets such as Tasnim and Fars, depicts him directing missile strikes in the wake of his father’s assassination.

Since the war began, authorities have enforced a near-total internet blackout, cutting off most Iranians from online access. They have also taken steps to jam satellite TV channels, many of which Tehran sees as supportive of opposition groups.

This has left many Iranians struggling to verify information, viewing state-run TV as saturated with outdated propaganda portraying a one-sided victorious narrative of the war that favours the Islamic republic.

These channels have disseminated footage of Tehran’s missiles flying into the sky, destruction in Israel, oil tankers in flames and smoke rising from high-rises in Dubai after Iranian attacks.

They had also been warned against disseminating information or footage of bombed locations, according to the judiciary, while the intelligence ministry threatened to punish anyone sending pictures to opposition-affiliated satellite channels — calling them the enemy’s “fifth column” and US-Israeli “mercenaries”.

Radan, the police chief, said 81 people had been arrested for leaking national security information to Iran International, an opposition station, which has openly advocated for US and Israeli military action and regime change to bring back Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late ousted Shah.

Local media on Friday reported a person had been arrested in the southwestern city of Shiraz for selling unfiltered internet via Starlink in several provinces.

The judiciary too has said it will seize the property of members of the Iranian diaspora accused of harming the country’s national interests.

For many Iranians, living at home under heavy US and Israeli bombardment, the war of words has only heightened the feeling of being trapped. “We are being targeted not only with actual bombs, but we are also bombarded with misinformation and war propaganda,” said Farid, a school teacher, using a pseudonym.

“On one side, there is the Islamic republic telling us that we are the absolute winners of this war. And on the other hand, overseas opposition groups keep telling us that the Islamic republic is just a step away from collapse.”

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