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An Iranian tanker from the country's shadow fleet caught fire after being struck by its own naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz. Omani authorities reported that 20 crew members, including 15 Indians, were rescued as the vessel continued to sink. The tanker, part of a network used to bypass international sanctions, was reportedly targeted for "illegally passing" through the strategic waterway. After being hit, fires erupted on board, forcing a rapid evacuation by nearby rescue teams. Shadow fleet strike sparks chaos The vessel, managed by Red Sea Ship Management LLC, had been sanctioned by the US Treasury in December...

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Wednesday that Iran has begged the US for a cease-fire — but he won’t agree to stop bombing the theocratic regime “back to the Stone Ages” until it opens the Strait of Hormuz. “Iran’s New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” he threatened. This is...

Rising tensions between the Pezeshkian administration and Iran’s military leadership have pushed the president into a “complete political deadlock,” with the Revolutionary Guard effectively assuming control over key state functions, informed sources told Iran International. The IRGC has blocked presidential appointments and decisions while erecting a security perimeter around the core of power, effectively sidelining the government from executive control. Efforts by Masoud to appoint a new intelligence minister last Thursday collapsed under direct pressure from IRGC chief-commander Ahmad Vahidi, sources with knowledge of the situation told Iran International. All proposed candidates, including Hossein Dehghan, were rejected. Vahidi is said...

The assassination of Iranian-Canadian dissident Masood Masjoody exposes Tehran’s growing campaign of transnational repression on Canadian soil, while critics warn that Ottawa’s immigration and security policies have allowed IRGC-linked operatives and regime loyalists to infiltrate and operate freely within Canada. In a chilling escalation of Tehran’s transnational terror, Canadian authorities have charged two suspects with the first-degree murder of Masood Masjoody, a 45-year-old Iranian-Canadian dissident and former Simon Fraser University instructor. Masood’s vocal criticism of the Islamic Republic’s brutal regime made him a prime target for the Islamic Regime’s extra-national assassination teams. Masjoody’s body was discovered on March 6, 2026,...

Iran’s security and military forces moved personnel, weapons and equipment into at least 70 civilian sites during the US-Israeli airstrikes, an Iran International investigation found, exposing what appears to be a nationwide pattern of using public spaces for military purposes. The sites span 17 provinces, 28 cities and two villages. Nearly half of them – 34 in total – were primary or secondary schools. Other locations identified in eyewitness accounts and documents reviewed by Iran International included hospitals, stadiums, universities, mosques, parks and government offices. The accounts were gathered over a 10-day period from March 2 to March 14, 2026,...

The U.S. has deployed B-52 Stratofortress bombers to the skies over Iran for the first time since Operation Epic Fury began, Pentagon officials say. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine made the announcement Tuesday morning during a press conference alongside War Secretary Pete Hegseth. Caine said the U.S. and Israel have dismantled Iran's air fighting capability to such an extent that the lumbering bombers can now operate safely in the region. "Given the increase in air superiority, we've successfully started to conduct the first overland B-52 missions, which allow us, as we've said before, to continue to get on top...

Reports from Iranian opposition sources indicate that Hassan Hassanzadeh, commander of the Rasul-Allah forces - the IRGC’s security unit in greater Tehran - was eliminated yesterday in an airstrike [on March 29, 2026 on Sabouni Street in Tehran and also resulted in the death of one of his deputies, though his identity has not been confirmed.] At this stage, there is no official confirmation of the reports.

After 26 years in Israel, I look more Israeli than Iranian, but even though I left Iran, the country is still part of me," Saidian told AFP. Saidian, who was wearing two pins on her lapel -- an Israeli flag and an Iranian one from before the 1979 Islamic revolution -- cries openly when talking about her native country, which she said she misses every day. If there were to be a football match between Israel and Iran, Saidian said she was not sure which side she would support. "We're like children with divorced parents: you love your mother and...

Iran’s IRGC has confirmed the killing of Jamshid Eshaghi, a major general in Iran’s armed forces and an adviser to the chief of the General Staff, Al Jazeera reports. In a statement circulated by Iranian media, the IRGC said an attack killed Eshaghi with several members of his family, but it did not provide details. Earlier today, Iranian state media announced that the funeral for the IRGC navy commander, Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, who was also killed in an Israeli attack, will take place on Monday.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Monday mourned IRGC Navy Chief Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, calling him a “brave commander” who “attained martyrdom after years of struggle,” according to state news agency IRNA. Khamenei also described Tangsiri as courageous and central to Iran’s role in the Persian Gulf, adding that he “died for his country” so its military “may continue on the path of Iran’s maritime authority and resistance, stronger and more firmly than in the past.” Tangsiri, 64, died of injuries sustained while on duty, the IRGC said, after working to strengthen Iran’s coastal defenses, though Israel says he was...

When Air Force Times reporter Michael Scanlon wrote that the A-10 Warthog had been pulled into maritime interdiction missions in the Strait of Hormuz, it landed like a jolt. This was not the airplane most people expected to hear about in a sea fight. But according to Scanlon, that is exactly what happened. During a Pentagon briefing, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said the A-10 was now operating along the southern flank of Operation Epic Fury, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fast-attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz. That detail matters because it confirms something the host of the...

The US campaign against Iran has continued to degrade the Islamic Republic’s military capacity, with thousands of targets struck, including missile infrastructure, air defenses, drone systems, and naval assets, alongside the use of bunker-penetrating munitions against fortified coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz. Operations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have complemented the US effort with strikes across Iran, including on missile-related sites and personnel. Strikes have also extended to economic targets, including gas processing facilities in Asaluyeh, which prompted Iranian threats of retaliation against regional and Israeli energy infrastructure. At the same time, the focus of the campaign...

Serious disagreements have emerged between Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and IRGC chief-commander Ahmad Vahidi over how to manage the war and its damaging impact on people’s livelihoods and the economy, sources with knowledge of the matter told Iran International. Pezeshkian has criticized the approach of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps regarding escalating tensions and continuing attacks on neighboring countries, warning about the economic consequences of the situation, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. He has stressed that without a ceasefire, Iran’s economy could face total collapse within three weeks to one month, the sources said. On...

Working with a team of visual investigators that included the Bulletin, the French newspaper Le Monde has analyzed a previously unreported satellite image of the Iranian nuclear site at Isfahan, showing a large truck loaded with containers. In a Le Monde article published Saturday, experts said they could not be certain what the containers held. But the timing of the image, the type of load, and other indirect evidence suggest that Iran may have placed a significant quantity of highly enriched uranium—possibly all of its inventory—at the facility ahead of the June 2025 strikes by Israel and the United States...

Hizbullah's retaliatory missile attacks against Israel, following the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have created an existential threat for the group. Hizbullah is miscalculating its heavy losses from military operations, which intensified after the group violated the November 27, 2024, ceasefire agreement. On March 13, Hizbullah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem called the conflict an "existential battle," but analysts unanimously assess this will be the group's last war. "Hizbullah is waging its final, losing battle, defying the Lebanese state's designation of it as an illegitimate entity and a faction operating under the orders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps...

Serious disagreements have arisen between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, head of the political echelon in the Islamic Republic, and Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), regarding the management of the war and its destructive consequences for the people and the country’s economy, opposition-linked Iran International reports. Pezeshkian has criticized the Revolutionary Guards’ approach to the conflict by escalating tensions, continuing attacks on neighboring countries, and refusing to negotiate with the U.S., warning of drastic economic consequences from this approach. Iran International cited “informed sources” who said that Pezeshkian has claimed that without a ceasefire, the Iranian...

Electricity has been cut in parts of the Iranian capital Tehran and in Alborz province after attacks on the area’s infrastructure, Iran’s state media cites the country’s ministry of energy as saying. Shrapnel hit a part of the electricity grid in Alborz province, causing power to be cut in several areas of Tehran and the city of Karaj. Authorities are working on reinstating it, state media adds.

President Donald Trump said his preference is to “take the oil” from Iran — despite whatever gripes his critics would have about it — during an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday. “To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: ‘why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” Trump told the outlet. The outlet noted “such a move would involve seizing Kharg Island through which most of Iran’s oil is exported.” Trump has been calling for the U.S. to take the island...

Bellingcat's analysis of the strike in Minab on Feb 28th doesn't make sense. At https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03/08/video-shows-us-tomahawk-missile-strike-next-to-girls-school-in-iran/ they show a video of a Tomahawk hitting an IRGC facility. Aerial photos show the blast field for that hit and bellingcat draw a red frame around that blast field. That shows the school outside the blast zone and they also say that the Tomahawk only hit a "clinic" and an earth-covered "magazine or bunker". The first paragraph says the video shows a Tomahawk hitting an IRGC facility. People on Bluesky used this to claim that the Tomahawk hit the school, but this shows the...

Operation Epic Fury marks a turning point in the art of war. The key to 20th-century battles was air power. In the past, space and cyber activities have traditionally played supporting roles as so-called force multipliers. But this is no longer the case. In this conflict they have become mainstream, carving out new fronts for the wars of the future. The use of space is no longer something that is just nice to have, because everything from comms to intel to navigation uses space and cyber assets. Along with the National Reconnaissance Office, which manages US spy satellites, the US...