This comes hot on the heals of news that a British airbase in Cyprus was also directly struck by an Iranian drone over the weekend.
Earlier in the night before RAF Akrotiri was struck British PM Keir Starmer said the Brits would support the Americans by opening bases for their use.
And right on schedule Iran immediately added the Brits to the target list.
#Cyprus #Iran #RAFAkrotiri #Britain #KeirStarmer #KhameneiAssassination
France ALSO said they'd support the US stop Iran's retalitory strikes and what do you know a few hours after that statement the French base Camp de la Paix in the UAE was seen burning. And continued to burn for much of Sunday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_de_la_Paix
#UAE #France #CampdelaPaix #Iran #KhameneiAssassination #EpsteinWar
Just hearing that a massive Saudi Aramco refinery facility in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia has just been struck by Iranian attacks and has been evacuated of all workers.
Monday show's NO signs of deescalation in West Asia.
UPDATE - Iran claims this attack was NOT them, this could be an attempt by a 3rd party to drag Saudi Arabia into the conflict.
#Aramco #RasTanura #saudiarabia #Iran #KhameneiAssassination #US #Oil
In a curious development it seems a total of at least THREE US F15 pilots were seen being helped away from wreckage in Kuwait.
It's looking increasingly likely that more than one US fighter jet was downed by friendly fire in this incident.
Holyshit, yea... there's been more friendly fire incidents for sure in Kuwait.
During the US's conflicts with Yemen in the past two years there's also been a significant number of friendly fire situations.
In those earlier situations Yemen fired and launched missiles and drones which flew back towards airbases right along side F15's as they were heading home.
I wonder if that type of "follow home" situation might be at play here?
Something seems very off today.
Ok just noticed a statement from an official Kuwaiti military account on Twitter acknowledged the friendly fire incident stating "several" planes were accidentally shot down.
Not sure if the "several" is a translation artifact or the actual intent of the speaker? If it were just the two F15s I'd hope they'd just say "two".
Guess we'll have to wait to hear more details on this as it develops.
In an update from the US military's CENTCOM they confirm a total of THREE F15 friendly fire incidents and SIX crew members ejecting safely.
Unconfirmed footage is also circulating of one of the six pilots possibly being assaulted by Kuwaiti's on the ground.
I have not been able to verify that clip so not posting for now.
One thing is for sure... its becoming clear that despite the US' allies in the region the
Gonna touch grass today I'll try and get caught up on updates before I sign off.
This weekend has been pretty crazy, I'd say more than any conflict I've observed this one has an absurd amount of gen-AI disinformation circulating.
There's also a TON of combat footage from previous Iran/Israel entanglements plus completely unrelated conflict zones being passed off as new.
It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to filter out the noise and try to share the most accurate realtime info I can.
This type of reporting also comes with a pretty big mental health toll as there's a continuous stream of content depicting civilian injuries & deaths on all sides which I typically do not post.
So anyways hold your loved ones close this week and value the joy you can find, it feels more fleeting than ever.
Around the time that I signed off yesterday, Iran's capitol Tehran was undergoing intense Israeli & US bombing campaigns which landed in civilian neighborhoods.
The early death toll from that day stands around 500 dead Iranians, with many more missing and possibly dead.
Iranian's were reportedly seen beginning to dig expansive graveyards to process the flow of dead civilians caused by the previous few days of conflict.
Also around the time Tehran was bombed, Lebanon was also seeing intense Israeli bombing directly on civilians.
It turns out that Israel was attempting to kill Hezbollah's leaders after their relatively small attack on an Israeli base after Khamenei's assassination.
In response Israel level whole civilian city blocks.
Israel appears to be opening up a ground invasion Lebanon...
A couple of commercial shipping vessels have been struck, likely by Iran, sailing near their coasts.
Iran appears to be very serious about their blockade on the Strait of Hormuz
Iran's blockade is currently only allowing Chinese or Russian vessels through.
Everyone else is not allowed to pass.
#Iran #straitofhormuz #KhameneiAssassination #Oil #Economics
As the days wear on we're starting to get clear satellite images of US bases.
Here's Bahrain's US base. It show's Iran was very effective at completely destroy early warning radar dishes as well as multiple support facilities near by.
CW: Pakistani cop shoots towards protesters.
It's important to note that this conflict and especially the news of Khamenei's assassination have sparked significant protests are MANY American embassies in the region.
And in turn, local police have turned up to put down the protests and this has resulted in dozens of dead civilians who have died at the hands of local cops.
In one such incident from Pakistan local cops and US marines killed & injured protesters.
In Bahrain, protesters were seen throwing molotovs at local cops while Iran continued to bomb US bases over head.
Partner's of Bahrain have been trying to move more troops in to put down protests and guard smoldering US bases but Iran also crashed drones into key bridges needed to cross into the territory.
Will be interesting to see if those new forces are welcomed as warmly...
In response to the escalating civilian deaths, Iran appears to have massively escalated their missile response, firing an estimated 100 ballistic missiles at Israel.
The number of success full impacts is unreal.
#Israel #TelAviv#Iran #TruePromise4
One thing is becoming very clear. The US can strike Iran and VERY hard. The west can kill pretty much any specific Iranian they want.
BUT Iran can absolutely flip the table.
The US bases are not safe.
The typical R&R spots are not safe.
The US Embassies are not safe.
Even standing too close to those things and especially playing host to the US now makes your economy a fair target to Iran.
With shipping closed, countries like Suadi Arabia can face a food crisis in weeks.
I'm also starting to hear geopol experts pointing now to the vulnerability of water desalination plants in the region.
If Iran targets these MANY Gulf States will have water shortages as some rely on these plants for up to 60% of their clean drinking water.
Iran is really holding all the cards.
Imo the region needs the US to beg for a ceasefire in only a handful of days.
The breaking news I'm following now is that Israel+US bombed the Iranian Assembly of Experts during Supreme Leader vote.
This was an attempted political assassination on a grand scale!
Now Iran does have a complex succession strategy which includes not allowing all leaders in to this vote so, per usual these were VERY brave people who simply went to vote on their next leader.
There's a ton of former US military officiers giving very grim assessments of the US's current position in this unnecessary war.
U.S. Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik makes the same observation I noticed, that US soldiers were filming and posting videos of their bases being bombed AFTER they were evacuated from the bases.
Iran is NOW collecting+acting on that intel (or had it already) to target the hotels troops are sheltering in.
Opsec fail.
Meanwhile Retired U.S. Army Colonel and former Secretary of Defense advisor Douglas Macgregor says the US Navy will be using ports in India.
He underscores the real risk now is that Iran has already destroyed most US bases and shown they can and will respond to Israel's aggression with a relentless missile war.
The experts are starting to worry that Israel will try to use a nuke on Iran when they run out of missile defenses.
I don't think I've ever seen this much unified anti-war rhetoric directly from people who you'd typically hear working on helping improve the US military's effectiveness.
https://escalationtrap.substack.com/p/the-escalation-ledger-iran-day-3
Not only does the US air strategy not work... I have my doubts about the US experts saying things like they will rely on Indian ports now.
As if the actual Indians want this crap coming to them. Many Indian Muslims are grieving just as much as Pakistan.
Increasing US military presence is just going to add additional internal conflict for India. I worry US military personnel won't be safe at any viable port.
The US also seriously miscalculated on the economic impacts Iran can create.
TikTokers Hasan Piker talks the web of economic damage caused by Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan says they had NO warning about the US going to war. The country gets 70% of its oil through the Strait and has less than a year of reserves.
Japan warns the unplanned economic fallouts of war will be an issue for them.
https://partyon.xyz/@nullagent/116166158831417257
#Japan #straitofhormuz #Iran #Israel #OilWar #economics #HasanPiker
Former Veteran + NASA astronaut and current Senator Mark Kelly took Elbridge Colby (The Undersecretary of Defense for Policy) to task in the senate today.
Kelly and many other politicians have been poking holes in the Trump administrations reasons for attack Iran.
Mark Kelly points to the fact that none of Iran's missiles can reach the US as why he thinks starting a war with Iran doesn't make sense.
They aren't a threat to America.
Senator Mark Warner, who has access to some of the most sensitive US intelligence says he saw NO signs of a threat to the United States which would justify Trump's actions.
News on US military casualities is slowly climbing we're now at six confirmed dead US service members
This article from yesterday points to the fact that scores of service members were missing, the US military didn't declare them dead until locating their bodies in a US facility.
“recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran’s initial attacks in the region”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/02/iran-attack-fourth-us-service-member-killed
Again, I gotta repeat, I've never seen the US propaganda machine trying to walk back a military intervention so hard in my LIFE.
We got former CIA analysts like Larry Johnson saying if the US is gonna kill an Iranian, why would they kill someone like Khamenei?
Khamenei has politically blocked Iran from completing a nuclear weapon for 36 years.
Johnson argues, that's the type of person he'd expect the US to leave in power.
I'm not going to post any more CIA talking heads, but there's a raft of them and quite a number of former spooks I don't trust are saying this whole Iran idea was a bad idea.
Democratic politicians like Jeff Merkley are saying Trump's actions are wholely unconstitutional.
They are chaffing at the idea that Congress was not consulted.
While I do believe Democrats wouldn't have done something so wreckless as Trump, I fully expected a Democrat to try Iran.
Some uncomfortable clips for Democrats are making the rounds today push by folks in support of US intervention in Iran.
In this one from 2011 Nancy Pelosi defends Barak Obama's region change operations in Libya without congressional approval and without any material threat of harm to the US from Libya.
Back in 2011, Democrats were ALL for wreckless wars. Imo the only thing that change is they weren't the caughtup in the beltway group think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_domestic_reactions_to_the_2011_military_intervention_in_Libya
Meanwhile March Rubio makes much the same case for the Trump administration's attacks on Iran as Nancy Pelosi agreed with back in 2011.
"NO presidential administration has ever accepted the War Powers Act as Constitutional" -Marco Rubio
And I regretfully agree with Marco, no US president has really given a damn about congress when starting / continuing wars.
While the American's were pointing fingers the Iranians have put on massive demonstrations throughout the last few nights.
Videos from just a few hours ago in Tehron show crowds holding a memorial for Khamemei while air defense systems actively confront American & Israel drones and fighter jets in the sky above.
The Iranian people are not cowering in fear.
There, as of yet, does not be a popular movment against the regiem.
Quite the opposite.
There's a handy website to view live estimates of the cost to US taxes payers for the war in Iran.
It's updated as facilities are damaged, planes shot down and ammunition spent.
It's almost morning time in Tel Aviv and by all accounts the night went horribly for Israelis as has become routine.
Iranian missiles were seen sailing right past air defense to strike targets on the ground.
In Dubai drones were seen targetting the US consulate. Throughout the night the building was seen with large flames leaping from the roof.
The next escalation many expect to come from the US and Israel proxy groups.
According to reports from DC tonight it appears the US is planning to heavily arm Kurdish separatist fighters and is pushing high quality propaganda to build support for the move.
Had the recent Iranian migrants waited a few more weeks it seems to me that they could easily have a completely different opinion had they watched the US bomb the very same people they wish to save.
I'm not the only person who questions the type of "freedom fighter" who aligns with the US at a time like this.
The US literally this week has blind sided pretty much all of it's world partners, you saw what we did in Afghanistan etc, why on earth would anyone think partnering with the US is a wise move?
Hasan Piker has similar thoughts...
There a diverse perspectives among Iranians in the diaspora, a common refrain is that regime change in this way is completely untenable.
Many Iranians feel that the US has put their families in far greater risk than existed before.
This clip brought to you by Mastodon's own @ChuckModi1
A Black American interviewed by @ChuckModi1 does an amazing job arguing Iran is NOT a distraction from the Epstein files.
In her view the Epstein files is nothing new. She asks, "what do you think they were doing during slavery?" connecting that sex trafficking and horrible crimes against children is an American legacy dating back to slavery & genocide of the Indians.
The leaders don't give a fuck that we know they're monsters, it's all business as usual.
So anyways, a lot of people are seeing through this Kurdish angle and are urging the diaspora to weigh their options more carefully.
CNN points out that many Iraqi Kurdish forces actually have normalized economic relations with Turkey and Iran which likely places large numbers of Kurds whom the US hope will support the war effort in an impossible situation.
CNN predicts that the Kurds will launch a ground attack before the end of the week.
US Senators leaving a closed door military briefing appeared upset and shaken at the apparent news that the US may be planning to a land invasion of Iran involving US troops (not just Kurdish separatist).
Multiple congress people voiced their concerns much like Blumenthal
#Blumenthal #DC #USPol #Iran #US #EpicFury #KhameneiAssassination
Rhode Island congressman Seth Magaziner had this to say about tonight's breifing
#RI #RhodeIsland #SethMagaziner #DC #EpicFury #EpicFailure #Iran #KhameneiAssassination
The strategy of having the Iraqi Kurds lead the charge, figuratively and seemingly physically, has some enourmous hurdles.
I think this CNN segment hits the nail on the head.
The Kurds are at best 10% of Iran's population. When the US last exploited them in Syria we had to provide them constant air patrols and special forces support for two years and the US ultimately betrayed the Syrian Kurds.
It's hard to imagine Iraqi Kurds having a different go of it
The US military's CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper gave an update on "Epic Fury" (more like epic failure).
There's so much wrong with his assessment I don't know where to start. Earlier in the thread I linked a blog post and video from Prof Robert Pape literally taught targeting strategy classes at US AirForce schools explains most of what the establishment is getting wrong right now 👇🏿
https://partyon.xyz/@nullagent/116166498265422657
#CENTCOM #BradCooper #EpicFury #EpicFailure #US #Iran #KhameneiAssassination
CW: Military SA occurs the most during deployments
So anyways, fuck that CENTCOM imperialst crusader shithead.
A lot of people are about to be seriously harmed by the US military and that doesn't stop at the enemy or civilizians. This sadly includes the US solders themselves.
The address which Ali Khamemei made on June 4th 2020, shortly after the death of George Floyd, is making the rounds again today.
In his remarks Khamemei says the knee on George Floyd's neck is the same one which has been on Iran's neck and many other countries around the world.
Folks may not know but this but Ali Khamemei's predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini, showed solidarity with Black Americans and especially Black South Africans.
During the Iranian Revolution Ali Khamemei personally saw to it that all but one of the Black American hostages taken during the crisis were released first.
He specifically cited the history of oppression of Black Americans as his reason for commuting their sentences.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/732139
https://english.khamenei.ir/news/7744/When-did-Imam-Khomeini-let-out-the-cry-of-Black-Lives-Matter
There's so much to be said about the course of battle, but I think most of us hardly know the guy whose death is really sparking this all off.
Despite the internal accusations and reality of the Iranian regime, their spokespeople moved through the leadership class in a way that Americans have clearly forgotten how to do.
In 2017 Ali Khamemei say that Malcolm X was a martyr and took the time in the UN to pay his respects.
One of Ali Khamemei's final remarks to his followers shows how steadfast his belief in the Iranian Revolution remained to the end.
The crowd cries as he states:
"My life has little value. I have a disabled body. I have a little bit of dignity, which you yourself have given me.
I put all of this on the line.
I am ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of this revolution and for Islam
May all this be sacrificed for you."
"You are the owner of this revolution"
Collective mourning for Khamemei continues, social life in Iran continues despite the intense bombing campaign all around this religious spaces.
A crowd was seen crying at the mention of "May Allah protect the Leader" during a sermon. The common refrain, no longer needed reminded the followers of their steadfast leader's brutal assassination.
And because my comments have been full of this Hijab commentary for the past year I wanna remind folks where Khamemei stood on the issue.
According to Ali Khamemei wearing a Hajib or not, or wearing it well vs badly was NOT a sign of being Anti-Revolutionary or against the state.
It was a simple personal choice to him, he reminded his followers that they are talking about their daughters and sisters and that they should respect this simple fashion choices.
The more I read about Ali Khamemei the more it really seems like regardless of his politics earlier in life he seems like a moderate who many westerners would expect leaders to be able to negotiate with.
He's a revolutionary, no doubt, and after seeing how the US elites felt after Luigi I can well see why they were terrified of Khamemei and the extremely militarily diligent regime he oversaw.
But at this point, he's just giving Luigi in old age grandpa vibes you know.
I keep looking at Iranian media and am just in shock with how organized their government is despite an assassination and thousands of US bombings in only a few days.
Meanwhile the Americans government is a total clusterfuck.
There is NO support right now for US citizens stranded in West Asia.
Many commercial airports are closed and the US really should be operating its own flights to get stranded citizens out.
While I rag on the Trump admin I know for a fact Democrats would have started this war too, they just would have kept the government customer service office open while doing so.
How do I know Dems would attack Iran?
Bc Hillary Clinton repeatedly said she WOULD no matter the stage of development be willing to attack Iran if she were in power.
There's been debate if that remark is out of context but I think she meant it.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/01/video-of-clinton-on-iran-taken-out-of-context/
I hope you understand that governments are made up by a multitude of people in leadership positions whose views shift and change with time, sometimes simply because they're attempts to impose their will didn't work.
The Iran Hijab laws, yes they did try to bring Hijab's back by force but it quite literally did not work. Like many governments caught up in an obviously failing policy they shift positions overtime. Morality cops existed but had no budget.
Iran’s government spokesperson said on Tuesday that the administration does not believe coercion can restore compliance with Iran’s hijab laws, amid renewed debate over enforcement and the deployment of tens of thousands of volunteers in Tehran.
@nullagent We all hate Trump in here and most of us hate Netanyahu too, but that doesn't make the horrible regime of Iran any better.
No budget, sure. They're volunteers, with vehicles and weapons donated by willing sponsors.
The enemy of my enemy is not automatically my friend.
That's strange, why do you think women who don't wear Hijab's would go out to support Khamenei. I've posted multiple videos of Hijab-less women in the streets of Tehran mourning Khamenei's death. I've got even more vids from Tehran of women not wearing Hijabs. Hell, youtube is FULL of vloggers walking around Tehran over the last few years and countless women are Hijab-less.
How sure are you this policy was enforced strictly in recent years?
Attached: 1 video Young people across Iran continue to demonstrate in support of the Iranian government's right to defend it's people and to avenge Ali Khamemei's death. YES even the Iranians who don't ware hijabs say they want the country to continue on the path of the Iranian Revolution. #Iran #Tehran
@nullagent "Escalation trap" terrifies me.
When Tom Clancy wrote Red Storm Rising (hypothesized the USSR starting a war for oil), he depicted the Politburo getting desperate to find a way to "win" after it became obvious they'd failed.
Their idea was to explode a small tac-nuke on a USSR base, as an excuse to start using them on NATO.
I ~hope~ our oligarchs aren't that ego-driven.
(Clancy's plot device was that their generals had the integrity to overthrow them rather than destroy the world.)
@nullagent I would love to hear a lot more concern about a) the behaviour of deployed US troops and b) the loss of innocent life which US troops will inflict whether ‘boots on the ground’ or not.
The concern for loss of American troops lives sounds extremely crass outside that American exceptionalism bubble.
Why on earth would the Kurds ever trust Trump again?!?
https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/roger-boyes-turkey-erdogan-trump-kurds-5kbwt7wvc
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/16/trump-iran-protests-intervention-kurds-nixon-kissinger-hungary/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/trump-abandoning-kurdish-allies-syria-no-surprise
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/trump-betrayed-kurds-whos-next/600004/
https://inkstickmedia.com/for-kurds-tom-barrack-becomes-the-latest-face-of-us-betrayal/
https://www.newarab.com/opinion/boltons-book-and-why-trump-betrayed-kurds
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/trump-kurds-world-order-betrayal.html
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/trump-syria-kurds-turkey.html
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