Operation Epic Fury (March 16-21): Joint U.S. & Israel Operation Against Iran
Compiled by
Trump: One Word Could End Iran Oil Exports on Kharg Island
March 16: NewsMax by Michael Katz
President Donald Trump said Monday it would take “just one simple word” for the United States to destroy the oil infrastructure on Iran’s Kharg Island, which handles roughly 90% of the Islamic Republic’s crude exports.
On Friday night, the U.S. targeted Iranian military facilities on the five-mile-long coral island about 15 miles off mainland Iran in the northern Persian Gulf.
But Trump said Monday, after a meeting of the board of the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, that the U.S. deliberately spared the island’s oil infrastructure to preserve it for a future democratic government.
Al Jazeera Op-Ed Praises US-Israel Operation Against Iran, Says Dems, Media Critics Are Wrong
March 17: Fox News by Joseph Wulfsohn
Operation Epic Fury is receiving praise from an unlikely source. Al Jazeera, the Qatari government-funded news organization, published an op-ed Monday declaring in the headline, “The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working.”
“Two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the dominant narrative has settled into a comfortable groove: The United States and Israel stumbled into a war without a plan. Iran is retaliating across the region. Oil prices are surging, and the world is facing another Middle Eastern quagmire. US senators have called it a blunder. Cable news has tallied the crises. Commentators have warned of a long war… But this narrative is wrong,” the piece began.
“Not because the costs are imaginary, but because the critics are measuring the wrong things. They are [cataloging] the price of the campaign while ignoring the strategic ledger.”
Seloom marveled at how “every aspect of Iran’s ability to project regional power is being successfully degraded” and “collapsing in real time.” He also pointed out how Iranian ballistic missile launches “have fallen by more than 90 percent” since Operation Epic Fury was first underway, dropping from 350 to roughly 25 — similar to its drone launches going from 800 on Day 1 to 75 by Day 15.
“Hundreds of Iranian missile launchers have been rendered inoperable. According to some reports, 80 percent of Iran’s capacity to strike Israel has been eliminated,” Seloom wrote. “Iran’s naval assets, fast-attack craft, midget submarines and mine-laying capabilities are being liquidated. Its air [defenses] have been suppressed to the point at which the US is now flying nonstealth B-1 bombers over Iranian airspace, a decision that signals near-total confidence in air dominance.”
Next US Move on Iran: Seize Kharg Island, Secure Uranium or Risk Ground War Escalation
March 17: Fox News by Efrat Lachter
As the U.S.–Iran war enters a new phase, the range of options now being discussed stretches from hitting Iran’s economic and oil lifeline at Kharg Island to the far more dangerous prospect of a ground invasion, or a narrower operation focused on Iran’s nuclear material.
The urgency comes as recent U.S. strikes have degraded parts of Iran’s military infrastructure without collapsing the regime, raising pressure on the Trump administration to decide what comes next.
Each option carries significant risks: disrupting Kharg Island could shock global oil markets, a ground invasion could draw the U.S. into a prolonged regional war, and operations targeting nuclear material could trigger escalation while still failing to eliminate the threat. What happens next could determine not only the trajectory of the conflict with Iran, but also the stability of global energy supply and the future of Tehran’s nuclear program.
Recent U.S. strikes already hit military targets on Kharg Island, a small island in the Persian Gulf that serves as Iran’s main oil export terminal that has emerged as a central pressure point in the conflict, while sparing its oil infrastructure, underscoring just how consequential the next move could be.
Kharg Island is the centerpiece of Iran’s oil export system. The island handles about 90% of Iran’s oil exports, and Iran recently has been exporting roughly 1.1 million to 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, mostly to China. Recent U.S. strikes on Kharg targeted military installations while leaving key oil facilities intact — a sign that Washington is trying to preserve a major pressure point without immediately detonating global oil markets.
Mamdani Hears About It After Making St. Patrick’s Day About Israel-Hamas War
March 17: Red State by Sister Toldjah
Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day. What did Mamdani do? He promptly made it about alleged Gaza “genocide,” while praising Ireland’s former president, Mary Robinson, who appears to share the Big Apple mayor’s views on the subject:
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday compared the plight of the Irish to the “genocide” in Palestine — as he used a St. Patrick’s Day celebration to rip the “deafening silence from so many” on the Israel-Hamas war.
The Democratic socialist dropped the Gaza-related remarks as he hosted Ireland’s former President Mary Robinson for breakfast at Gracie Mansion to kickstart the Big Apple’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities.
Hizzoner went on to laud Robinson, who was the first female president to lead Ireland in the ’90s, for her human rights record and history of standing with the Palestinian people. “I say this as over the past few years, as we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many,” he said. “For those who have long cared about universal human rights and the extension of them to Palestinians, silence, however, is nothing new, for Palestinians are so often left to weep alone. Yet, former President Robinson has never been silent.”
Rabbi Elchanan Poupko was also not amused: “Resistance” is the same word he and his friends use for the monstrous baby kidnappers and baby killers of Gaza who carried out the atrocities of October 7th. Mamdani owes [an apology] to both the Irish and Jewish community of New York.
Trump: Let Others Handle Strait After Iran Regime Crushed
March 18: NewsMax by Michael Katz
President Donald Trump continued to air grievances about allies’ lukewarm support for the U.S. military engagement with Iran and their reluctance to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial chokepoint in the Persian Gulf where roughly 20% of global oil trade passes.
Trump warned Wednesday on Truth Social that the U.S. should let countries that rely on the strait for their oil deal with its security once the U.S. “finished off” the Iranian regime following Operation Epic Fury.
The U.S. and Israel began their joint military operation against Iran’s political leadership and military infrastructure on Feb. 28. Iran retaliated by attacking oil-rich Gulf nations that host U.S. military assets and by sharply restricting access through the strait, which Tehran has said remains open but effectively closed “for our enemies.” Major shipping companies have suspended transits, reducing traffic to a trickle.
Golden Dome Defense Cost Projected At $185 Billion
March 18: NewsMax by Jim Mishler
The projected cost of the U.S. Golden Dome missile defense system has risen to $185 billion, an increase of $10 billion aimed at accelerating development of key space-based capabilities, according to the program’s director.
The system is designed to expand ground-based defenses, including interceptor missiles, sensors, and command systems, while adding space-based elements to detect, track, and potentially counter missile threats from orbit, Reuters reported.
Britain, Euros, Japan Announce ‘Readiness to Contribute to Appropriate Efforts’ in Straits of Hormuz
March 19: Breitbart by Oliver JJ Lane
The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan made a call for international law to be observed in the Gulf as they announced joint efforts to reopen the Straits of Hormuz are in the “preparatory planning” stage.
A coalition of Western nations have expressed their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”. While the joint statement from the governments of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan is couched in the least committal language possible, it is a notable change of direction after a week of the leaders of those same nations rebuffing calls from the United States to rally around the flag and ensure freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most strategic and contested waterways for their own good.
Indeed, the statement follows major criticism of the government and leadership of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, which President Trump castigated for failing to pursue its own national interest as well as not honouring its allies, while calling him out personally for being indecisive and hidebound. It also lands just as Japan’s Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae meets President Trump for talks in Washington, which were anticipated to be “difficult” for Japan after the country failed to heed Trump’s call for aid.
Defiant Iran Declares the World Is Now a Target, Recreational and Tourist Sites Included
March 20: Breitbart by Simon Kent
Recreational and tourist sites worldwide will now be a target for Iran’s aggression and what remains of the Islamic state’s leadership further added Friday it is still building missiles.
The show of defiance singling out non-combatant civilian targets anywhere on the globe comes three weeks into U.S.-Israeli strikes that have eliminated a slew of Tehran’s top leaders and hammered its weapons and energy industries, AP reports.
The outlet detailed: Iran’s top military spokesman warned Friday that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide won’t be safe for Tehran’s enemies. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi made the threat as Iran continues to be hit by American and Israeli airstrikes. It renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic in the war.
U.S. and Israeli leaders maintain weeks of strikes have decimated Iran’s military. Airstrikes have also eliminated its supreme leader, the head of its Supreme National Security Council and a host of other top-ranking military and political leaders, as Breitbart News reported. Iran’s key military and economic sites have taken a similar battering from combined Israeli and U.S. attacks that form Operation Epic Fury.
Even so, Tehran’s arrogant defiance knows no bounds.
IRGC ‘Main Propagandist’ Spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini Killed in Overnight Airstrike
March 20: Gateway Pundit by Margaret Flavin
On Friday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that Iran’s ‘main propagandist,’ Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini, was killed in an overnight strike. Naini, Iran’s very own ‘Bagdad Bob,’ consistently spread propaganda of the country’s ‘readiness for prolonged high-intensity war’ in the weeks before his death. He was killed just a day after issuing a message on Iranian state television, which challenged the US Navy’s presence in the Persian Gulf.
Fars News Agency quoted him as recently saying, “Our missile industry deserves a perfect score… and there is no concern in this regard, because even under wartime conditions we continue missile production,” and asserting the country’s missile production is uninterrupted.
Trump Threatens to Attack Iranian Energy Sites If Strait of Hormuz Isn’t Reopened
March 21: The Epoch Times by Ryan Morgan
President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iranian energy facilities if Iranian forces don’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz and cease all attacks on the critical waterway.
“If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump’s threat comes as Iranian forces have snarled traffic throughout the Persian Gulf, which serves as a key artery for fuel and other global commodities. Oil prices have hovered at around $100 barrel in the weeks since U.S. and Israeli forces launched joint attacks on Iran, setting off the ongoing armed conflict.
Mike Hernandez is co-founder of the Citizens Journal–Ventura County’s online news service and writes for CitizensJournal.net and MountainTopMedia.com. He is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor, writer of “Prayer Over News Daily” and edits the weekly “Stories Speak Volumes” and other columns. Mr. Hernandez mentors citizen journalists with trainings held every other month (on Saturdays at Shasta Bible College and online) and can be contacted at MikeHernandezMedia.com.