What the US and Israel have targeted in their Iran blitz
Adam Goldman, Samuel Granados, Ronen Bergman And Eric Schmitt
A week after the start of their war against Iran, the United States and Israel attacked a wide variety of targets (about 4,000 in total) from land, air, and sea.
The bombing campaign, one of the most intense attacks by US forces in decades, reveals a broad strategy. The United States and Israel are trying to loosen the grip of Iran’s repressive security and intelligence services and possibly overthrow its authoritarian government. They also seek to eliminate Iran’s ability to produce and launch missiles, severely weaken its navy, and prevent the country from producing nuclear weapons.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday (Washington time) that the conflict will continue until Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, indicating that the war may be just beginning. But so far Iran has not given up.
The country’s religious leader and other senior officials were killed in the bombing, but the Islamist government that has ruled the country since 1979 remains in place.
Although weakened, the Iranian army still continues to fire missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles at Israel and the countries in the region where US troops are deployed.
Iran’s extensive security forces also appear robust. The US and Israel have struck at least one site at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program, although the extent of the damage is unclear.
Leadership
In the first minutes of the war, Israel tried to paralyze the chain of command in Iran. Israeli warplanes launched a barrage of missiles that hit the Iranian leadership compound in central Tehran.
At that time, senior Iranian national security officials were gathered in a building on the campus. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was in another building.
Khamenei was among those killed in the attack last weekend. Israel later captured and killed the top Iranian commander in charge of operations in Lebanon in Tehran.
Trump said several potential successors to Khamenei were now dead and that he wanted to have a say in choosing Iran’s next leader. The United States and Israel are undoubtedly looking for opportunities to eliminate more Iranian officials.
Intelligence and security
The bombing campaign targeted security and intelligence agencies responsible for suppressing dissent in Iran. The aim is to weaken the regime’s control of power.
Targets include the Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s most powerful military force, and the Basij, a plainclothes militia affiliated with the Guard. Israel said it blasted Basij, a compound east of Tehran that serves as the headquarters of the Guard and the Quds Force, the Guard’s arm responsible for foreign operations, with dozens of warplanes in a single attack.
Israel estimates that hundreds of Basij and Guard personnel were killed, as well as thousands of security personnel. The Pentagon has said it has bombed sites linked to the Guard, along with its proxies who have targeted Americans in numerous attacks for decades.
Additionally, the US and Israel hit detention centers, television and broadcasting facilities.
Missiles and defense
Perhaps the most vital part of the US-Israeli operation was the effort to establish air superiority by attacking Iran’s air defenses, missile depots and launchers, and air bases.
The Israeli military says more than 300 Iranian missile launchers and about 150 air defense systems have been disabled and continues to target the country’s ballistic missiles and launch sites.
The US says it paralyzed the Iranian navy and destroyed 30 ships, including a submarine.
The US military used a submarine to fire a torpedo and sink an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, and also hit an Iranian drone carrier ship.
The aim of the naval operations is to weaken Iran’s ability to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which carries one-fifth of the world’s oil exports and significant amounts of natural gas.
nuclear program
The United States and Israel say they are determined to prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons.
In June, the two countries carried out attacks on Iran that Trump said “destroyed” the country’s nuclear potential.
However, US and Israeli forces continued to hit Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, attacking the Natanz facility, where Iran produces the vast majority of its nuclear fuel.
The facility is considered the heart of the country’s nuclear program. Satellite images show new attacks have destroyed the entrances to an underground cavern at Natanz that houses centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
It is unclear whether Isfahan and Fordow, two other areas hit in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, were targeted again.
Last week, Israel destroyed a previously secret underground facility in Minzadehei, northeast of Tehran, that it said was used to develop nuclear weapons parts.
Israeli Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter said Iran “plans to pair nuclear enriched uranium with a missile delivery system” at the facility.
This article was first published on: New York Times.
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