Operation Epic Fury (Feb. 28-March 1): Joint U.S. & Israel Operation Against Iran
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Trump: ‘Major Combat Operations’ Underway To ‘Obliterate’ Iranian Missile Factories
Feb. 28: Breitbart by Oliver JJ Lane
U.S. President Donald Trump told the Iranian armed forces to lay down their arms or face “certain death” and its people to rise up and “seize control of your destiny” as “major” strikes against Tehran commenced.
Joint American-Israeli strikes against Iran took place over night, with U.S. President Donald Trump addressing both the nation and the people of Iran. Announcing the strikes to eliminate “imminent threats from the Iranian regime” which “directly endangers the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world”, Trump said: “A short time ago, the United States Military began major combat operations in Iran”.
Iranian retaliatory strikes have been launched against Israel.
The strikes are intended to destroy Iran’s stockpiles of missiles and to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s missile production industry, the President said. Most importantly, Trump said, was preventing Iranian nuclear-tipped long-range missiles from ever threatening the American mainland or America’s allies in Europe.
Saudi Arabia Slams “Brutal Iranian Aggression” Against Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Jordan, And Kuwait — Gulf States Vow Full Right to Retaliate After Tehran Attack
Feb. 28: Gateway Pundit by Jim Hoft
A major geopolitical flashpoint erupted across the Middle East on Saturday after Iran launched missile and drone attacks targeting multiple Gulf nations, prompting Saudi Arabia to issue a blistering condemnation of what it described as “brutal Iranian aggression.”
Saudi officials made it clear that Riyadh is standing in full solidarity with the nations targeted in Saturday’s coordinated Iranian assault. In its statement, the Kingdom warned that the attacks represent blatant violations of international law and expressed its readiness to assist its regional allies with “all its capabilities.”
Ayatollah’s Compound Demolished and Some Big Iranian Leaders Killed
Feb. 28: Red State by Bonchie
President Donald Trump reached his breaking point on Saturday with Iran, launching a massive joint air assault in conjunction with the Israelis. The attacks are expected to last for several days, and unlike the 12 Day War, this operation appears to have a more final endgame: The end of the Iranian Islamic regime.
For weeks, the Trump administration attempted to achieve a diplomatic outcome, only to have those efforts rebuffed with arrogance and an unwillingness to move on key issues. While Iran’s negotiators claimed to be garnering concessions, the American president kept publicly expressing his increasing discontent with the situation.
With the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford carrier group into the region, the stage was set to end the obvious stalling by the Iranians, and the show has now started. According to multiple reports, the first round of strikes, which were carried out by the IAF, directly targeted the regime’s leadership, and some big names have been eliminated.
Iranian Crown Prince Calls on Military, Police, Security Services to Abandon ‘Crumbling’ Islamist Regime
Feb. 28: Breitbart by Kurt Zindulka
The son of the last Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, called on the country’s military, police, and security forces to abandon the “crumbling” Islamist regime of the Ayatollah amid U.S. and Israeli strikes on Saturday.
“Decisive moments lie before us,” the exiled crown prince of Iran said amid a major military operation launched in the early hours of Saturday by U.S. President Donald Trump in conjunction with Israeli forces targeting the rogue nation’s missile programme and leadership apparatus.
In a statement on social media, Reza Pahlavi said that the military operation initiated by President Trump should be seen as a “humanitarian intervention” targeting the Islamist regime — “and its machinery of killing” — rather than a strike on the country and people of Iran.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Is Dead After US-Israeli Attack On Iran — Along With 40 Top Leaders
Feb. 28; California Post by Emily Goodin and Victor Nava
Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed Saturday in an unprecedented, joint military attack by the US and Israel called Operation Epic Fury — which President Trump said would give Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.”
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump declared on his “Truth Social” about 15 hours after the start of the onslaught. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs.”
Hours later, Iranian state media confirmed that Khamenei had been “martyred.”
‘Largest Military Flyover in IAF History’: 200 Israeli Jets Strike 500+ Targets Across Iran
Feb. 28: Breitbart by Joshua Klein
Israel conducted what it described as the “largest military flyover in the history of the Israeli Air Force” on Saturday, dispatching roughly 200 fighter jets to strike approximately 500 Iranian missile and air defense targets in a near-simultaneous assault that commanders said eliminated direct threats and significantly expanded Israeli air superiority over Iranian skies.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the operation marked the largest strike sortie ever conducted by the Israeli Air Force (IAF), targeting ballistic missile launchers and aerial defense systems across western and central Iran. “This is the largest strike sortie in the history of the Israeli Air Force, executed after close planning with high-quality intelligence, synchronizing hundreds of aircraft simultaneously,” the military said in a statement.
According to the IDF, fighter jets dropped hundreds of munitions on roughly 500 objectives, including surface-to-surface missile launchers and anti-aircraft batteries. Strikes on Iran’s defense systems, the military said, “enabled the expansion of air superiority over Iranian skies and caused a severe blow to the regime’s central offensive capability — the launch sites in western Iran.”
Israel Reportedly Co-opted Major Iranian Prayer App to Encourage Millions of Defections, Resistance
March 1: Daily Caller by Mariane Angela
Israel reportedly co-opted a popular Iranian prayer app Saturday to send mass notifications urging defections from the Islamic regime. The BadeSaba Calendar app, utilizing its extensive reach inside Iran, helps users track daily prayer times and religious observances, the Wall Street Journal reported. It has logged more than 5 million downloads on the Google Play Store alone, giving operators access to a vast domestic audience.
Screenshots posted on social media show a burst of Persian-language notifications declaring “help has arrived.” The cyber operation apparently took place as Israel and the United States launched a sweeping wave of strikes against Iranian military and leadership targets, ultimately resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
One of the push notifications reportedly targeted members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and regular army, urging them to abandon their posts. “The era of dictators is over. Do not sacrifice your lives for a regime that has already fallen. Lay down your arms and join your people. Help has arrived,” the notification said, the outlet reported.
Intelligence analysts view the breach as a calculated psychological operation, according to the outlet. By seizing control of a trusted religious utility app, the perpetrators bypassed state-controlled media channels and delivered defection messaging straight to personal devices widely used by soldiers and civilians alike.
Nine Iranian Navy Ships Now on the Bottom of the Ocean
March 1: Red State by Ward Clark
Operations are still underway over and around Iran on Sunday, and the United States and Israel are well on their way to not only owning the skies over Iran, but the waters around it. On that morning, President Trump took to his Truth Social account to inform us that at least nine Iranian navy craft have now found new berths at the bottom of the ocean.
The president wrote:
“I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important. We are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also! In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters. Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!” PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
CIA Closely Watched Khamenei for Months Before Fatal Strikes in Iran
March 1: CNN By Kevin Liptak, Alana Treene, Tal Shalev, Natasha Bertrand
For months, Israeli and American intelligence agencies — including the CIA — had been secretly watching Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for just the right moment. They were monitoring his daily patterns — where he lived, whom he met with, how he communicated and where he might retreat under threat of attack, five people familiar with the matter told CNN. They were keeping tabs, too, on Iran’s senior political and military leaders, who rarely gathered in the same place with the ayatollah, the country’s supreme leader for nearly four decades.
Over the last several days, they found their opportunity. Top Iranian officials, including Khamenei, planned to meet Saturday morning at separate sites on a Tehran compound that is home to the offices of the ayatollah, the Iranian presidency and the national security apparatus.
The overly cautious supreme leader felt less vulnerable during daylight hours, an Israeli source said, and let down his guard. It was an opening some Israeli and US officials believed was too good to pass up.
In broad daylight, around 6 a.m. in Israel, Israeli war planes fired into the compound in the opening salvo of a coordinated wave of strikes from the US and Israel. They were equipped with highly accurate munitions and long-range missiles, sources said. All three sites with the various leaders at the compound were hit simultaneously. Hours later, President Donald Trump announced Khamenei was dead.
It’s still not clear what prompted Iran’s senior-most leaders — including the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the defense minister — to convene in the middle of Tehran in the same rough location as Khamenei, and at a moment when the US had amassed extensive military firepower in the region to make good on Trump’s threats to attack. Israeli intelligence had determined Khamenei’s top advisers, including Aziz Nasirzadeh, the minister of defense; Adm. Ali Shamkhani, the head of the Military Council; Mohammad Shirazi, the deputy intelligence minister; Mohammad Pakpour, the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps; and Seyyed Majid Mousavi, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force, were present, among others. Nor was it clear who would replace them.
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.