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Israel says it killed top Iranian security official; Pakistan bombing kills hundreds in Kabul; Cuba hit by blackout amid Trump blockade *Israel claims it killed top Iranian security official. U.S.-Israeli strikes [kill][1] civilians. 12,000 Tehran housing units damaged. Drone [strikes][2] target Fujairah. Strikes in Iraq [kill][3] PMF fighters. Explosions [reported][4] in Doha and Dubai. Iran [allows][5] limited shipping through Hormuz. Mass displacement in Lebanon [surges][6]. Three Lebanese soldiers killed in Israeli strikes. Israeli strikes [hit][7] multiple sites across Lebanon. UN peacekeepers [report][8] Israeli troop buildup inside southern Lebanon. Israeli forces [continue][9] their slaughter in Gaza. Israeli forces [shoot][10] two Palestinian teenagers near Ramallah. Settlers [assault][11] Palestinian residents during raid in the Jordan Valley. Trump official resigns citing Israeli influence over government. Momentum picks up for a vote on Gottheimer’s War Powers Resolution. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO cashes out while laying off workers amid merger. Progressives and special interests showdown in Illinois. Former presidents [deny][12] President Donald Trump’s claim about bombing Iran. Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia [released][13] from ICE detention. Afghanistan says Pakistani raid on Kabul hospital [killed][14] hundreds. U.S. reportedly [demands][15] Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel step down. Cuba [suffers][16] island-wide blackout amid deepening fuel shortages. Ecuador launches U.S.-backed military operation. Colombia claims Ecuador bombed border region.* **NEW from Drop Site: Iran is [ignoring][17] U.S. requests to talk. Israel [kills][18] over a dozen Lebanese paramedics in three days. War returns to [Iraq][19] as political uncertainty deepens. Colorado’s Melat Kiros is the latest [guest][20] on Drop Site’s “Eyeing Office.”** **This is Drop Site Daily, our free daily news recap. **We send it Monday through Friday. [Subscribe now][21] A view of destruction following reported Pakistani airstrikes in Kabul, Afghanistan on March 17, 2026. Afghan officials said the strikes allegedly hit a drug rehabilitation center in the capital, causing civilian casualties. Photo by Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu via Getty Images. # War on Iran * **Israel claims it killed top Iranian security official: **Israel said Tuesday it has killed Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Gen. Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the paramilitary Basij force, in separate airstrikes. “Larijani and the Basij commander were eliminated last night and have joined Khamenei, the head of the annihilation program, along with all those eliminated from the axis of evil in the depths of hell,” Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. At the time of publication, Iran has not confirmed or denied either death. If confirmed, Larijani would be the highest-level Iranian official killed in the war since the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several members of his family in an Israeli attack, on the first day of the war. A former parliamentary speaker and senior policy adviser, Larijani was appointed to advise the late Khamenei in nuclear talks with the Trump administration. Larijani was last seen publicly on Friday, attending a rally in support of Palestinians in Tehran. Larijani’s office published a handwritten letter in Farsi that it said he wrote commemorating the Iranian sailors killed when their ship was targeted by a U.S. submarine off the Sri Lankan coast. Israel said it killed Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the paramilitary Basij force in a combat tent alongside other Basij commanders. * **U.S.-Israeli strikes kill civilians:** * A U.S.-Israeli missile [strike][22] hit a home in Amrabad near Arak in central Iran, killing a family of four as they slept, local reports said. The victims included a three-day-old baby, his two-year-old sister, their mother, and grandmother. * Multiple reports said a new wave of U.S.-Israeli airstrikes [struck][23] Tehran on Tuesday morning, with videos and social media posts showing impacts in several parts of the capital, including Piroozi Street in eastern Tehran and the Niavaran area in the north, according to the BBC. Earlier Monday, Israel struck a government-linked economic office in the city, with nearby civilian shops—including a bakery, supermarket, banks, and other storefronts—also damaged in the blast. * **12,000 Tehran housing units damaged:** At least 12,000 housing units in Tehran have sustained partial or total damage as a result of the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran, the governor of Tehran Mohammad Sadegh Motamadian said, according to the Mehr news agency. At least 56 museums, historical monuments, and cultural sites in Iran have also been damaged, according to the country’s Heritage Ministry. * **A heavy price for civilians in Iran:** In a [statement][24], the International Committee of the Red Cross’s head of delegation in Iran, Vincent Cassard, said civilians are paying a “heavy price” in Iran. “I am seeing the heavy strain that the recent escalation of hostilities has placed on people in Iran, who fear for their lives, the safety of their loved ones and their livelihoods. The heavy loss of life is alarming. Civilian infrastructure has been affected, and many homes have been severely damaged by the hostilities. Daily life in Tehran has been profoundly disrupted: children are not attending school, and many businesses have temporarily closed as a precaution due to the ongoing strikes,” Cassard said. * **Drone strikes target Fujairah: **Fires were still [burning][25] Monday in the oil industrial zone at the UAE’s Fujairah port after a drone strike hit the facility early in the day, according to Reuters and CNBC. The attack forced ADNOC to suspend crude loading temporarily. A commercial tanker [anchored][26] about 23 nautical miles off Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman was also struck by an unknown projectile on Monday, causing minor structural damage but no injuries, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations. The incidents follow another drone-related fire Saturday that briefly halted the port’s operations. * **Strikes in Iraq kill PMF fighters: **Suspected U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iraq [killed][27] at least eight fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces in the country’s Anbar province, according to Associated Press reporting, though no group has formally claimed responsibility. The deadliest attack struck a PMF checkpoint, killing six fighters, while another strike hit a brigade headquarters in the same region. The Iran-aligned Kataib Hezbollah militia also said one of its senior security officials was killed. Separate drone attacks targeted Baghdad’s Rasheed Hotel in the Green Zone and Iraq’s Majnoon oil field in Basra province, damaging infrastructure but with no reported casualties. In response to the U.S.-Israeli escalation, Iran has continued its retaliatory attacks in the country, with two Shahed-136 drones reportedly striking inside the U.S. embassy complex, according to Reuters. No casualties or injuries were reported from these attacks. * **Explosions reported in Doha and Dubai: **A Pakistani national was killed by debris from strikes in Abu Dhabi.** **Explosions were [reported][28] in Doha and Dubai, and regional air defenses were activated under the threat of continued Iranian strikes, with Qatar saying it intercepted at least one incoming missile, according to the Associated Press. * **Iran allows limited shipping through Hormuz: **Iran has [allowed][29] at least four vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, routing them through the Larak-Qeshm channel inside Iranian territorial waters rather than the usual international shipping lanes, according to MarineTraffic. The ships included three bulk carriers and a Pakistani Aframax tanker carrying Abu Dhabi crude—the first non-Iranian cargo to pass the chokepoint while broadcasting its AIS signal. * **Trump claims Tehran rally was AI-generated despite verified footage: **President Donald Trump [claimed][30] a large rally in Tehran supporting Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was “totally AI-generated,” despite photos and video verified by multiple international outlets, including The New York Times, showing tens of thousands gathered in Revolution Square. Trump also suggested potential treason charges and FCC license reviews over media coverage of the event and accused Iran of using artificial intelligence as a “disinformation weapon.” * **Iranian parliament speaker says security in Strait of Hormuz has forever changed: **Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, [said][31] the security landscape in the Strait of Hormuz “will never be the same.” He accused the United States of submitting to Israeli influence and said President Donald Trump is “lying several times a day out of desperation,” claiming Iran has targeted all U.S. bases in the region. Ghalibaf added that the “face and order of the Middle East are changing,” arguing that the region’s countries will shape their own security and economics, and will no longer answer to the United States. * **Iran is ignoring U.S. requests to talk: **Iranian officials told Drop Site that the Trump administration has privately sought talks through envoy Steve Witkoff while publicly claiming Tehran is seeking negotiations. Tehran says it will only consider a ceasefire once it secures guarantees against future attacks on itself and its allies in Iraq and Lebanon. “The message…is clear: Iran has once again closed the window for any direct negotiations,” a senior Iranian official told Drop Site. And it is doing so because the U.S. “appears to be seeking a temporary ceasefire in order… to employ a combination of diplomacy and pressure to advance its broader objectives within Iran’s political system.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later [rejected][32] a White House claim, reported by Axios, that he had sent messages to U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff seeking talks to end the war. Araghchi said his last contact with Witkoff occurred before Washington “decided to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran,” and suggested the claims were intended to “mislead oil traders and the public.” **Read the full report from Jeremy Scahill [here][33].** # Lebanon * **Casualty count: **The death toll from Israel’s assault on Lebanon has risen to at least 886, including 111 children, since March 2, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. * **Mass displacement in Lebanon surges: **Lebanon’s government [said][34] Israeli strikes and ground incursions since March 2 have displaced more than 1 million people—about one-fifth of the country’s population. * **Three Lebanese soldiers killed in Israeli strikes:** Three Lebanese army soldiers were killed and four others wounded in Israeli strikes on Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on Tuesday as they were moving by car and motorcycle, the Lebanese army said. * **Israeli strikes hit multiple sites across Lebanon:** * **Five killed on Tuesday:** Two people were killed on Tuesday in Israeli airstrikes on al-Jumayjimah in southern Lebanon, according to the state National News Agency. Three people were also killed in Israeli airstrikes on the nearby town of Bint Jbeil. * **Airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs: **Two large Israeli airstrikes [hit][35] Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday night, minutes apart, after a forced displacement order for the area was renewed. Another strike targeted a residential building in Aramoun. * **Israel kills three more first responders in southern Lebanon strike: **Israel [killed][36] three first responders on Monday morning after striking an ambulance in Kfar Sir in the Nabatieh district that had been responding to an earlier attack, according to L’Orient Today. The ambulance was operated by the Islamic Health Committee and was hit around 9:31 a.m. Beirut time. The deaths bring the number of healthcare workers killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon to 35 since March 2. * **Close-quarters fighting intensifies along the Israel-Lebanon border: **Close-quarters fighting [continues][37] between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, with local media reporting intense clashes in the hilltop town of Khiam as Israeli troops attempt to seize control. Israeli forces that pushed into Kfar Shuba reportedly raided homes on the town’s outskirts and abducted a resident before withdrawing to nearby highlands. Hezbollah said it struck five Israeli tanks in the past 24 hours, including a direct hit in Taybeh, and fired rockets at Israeli positions near the stadium and detention center in Khiam. * **UN peacekeepers report Israeli troop buildup inside southern Lebanon:** The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) [says][38] it has observed an “evident” buildup of Israeli troops at six locations inside southern Lebanon near the Blue Line, according to the Associated Press. Peacekeepers reported clashes around Odaisseh and Khiam, with Israeli ground incursions reaching roughly three miles into Lebanese territory in some cases. UNIFIL said its ability to monitor the situation has been limited by ongoing fighting, which has restricted peacekeepers’ movements. That buildup is corroborated by other reports on Monday that Israel is considering mobilizing up to 450,000 reservists for its ground invasion, according to Middle East Monitor, a major increase from the 260,000 previously authorized, as reported by the BBC. * **European leaders warn against Israeli offensive in Lebanon:** Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain said in a joint statement on Monday that a “significant” Israeli offensive in Lebanon must be averted. “A significant Israeli ground offensive would have devastating humanitarian consequences and could lead to a protracted conflict,” the countries said. “We are gravely concerned ⁠by the escalating violence in Lebanon and call for meaningful engagement by Israeli and Lebanese representatives to negotiate a sustainable political ⁠solution.” * **Israeli strikes kill Lebanese paramedic who vowed to continue rescue work: **Lebanese paramedic Haj Qassem Sultan, who had publicly vowed to continue serving despite Israeli attacks on emergency workers, was killed Friday when an Israeli strike destroyed an Islamic Health Authority medical center in Burj Qalaouiyah in southern Lebanon, killing 12 people, including doctors, paramedics, and patients. “Our message is clear,” Sultan said in his final remarks. “Even if we are killed one by one, we will not abandon our duty. We will continue to serve Khiam and Marjayoun and Al-Taybeh and Debbine and all of our sacred land.”** Read more about Israel’s targeting of Lebanese medical personnel in the latest dispatch from Drop Site contributor Lylla Younes, [here][39].** # The Gaza Genocide, Israel and the West Bank * **Casualty counts: **Over the past 24 hours, two Palestinians were killed and 20 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,249 killed, with 171,898 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 673 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,799, while 756 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. * **Israeli forces continue their slaughter in Gaza: **Two Palestinians were killed Tuesday and 12 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in Muwasi Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.** **On Monday, Israeli forces [killed][40] at least two Palestinians in Gaza. Bahaa al-Qarra was shot by Israeli snipers near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and a child, Mohammad Warsh Agha, was shot in the abdomen in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. A later Israeli strike killed Younis Eliyan and wounded four others, while a woman, Amna Subh, was critically wounded by sniper fire in Beit Lahia. * **Israeli forces shoot two Palestinian teenagers near Ramallah: **Israeli forces [shot][41] two 16-year-old Palestinians, Fathi Sahouri and Salim Faqha, near the entrance to Turmus Ayya northeast of Ramallah on March 16 in the occupied West Bank. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces prevented its medical crews from reaching the wounded near the Sinjil junction, an area the army declared a closed military zone. Israeli troops later raided the nearby town of Sinjil, searching homes and commercial shops. * **Settlers assault Palestinian residents during raid in the Jordan Valley: **Israeli settlers [carried out][42] a violent overnight raid on Khirbet Humsa in the northern Jordan Valley, where witnesses told Haaretz that dozens of masked attackers stormed the community, bound residents, and reportedly sexually assaulted a Palestinian man while forcing families to watch. Residents and international activists said settlers beat men, women, and girls, threatened to rape women and kill children, and assaulted detainees who had been zip-tied and blindfolded. Six people were evacuated for medical treatment, and residents said Israeli soldiers later detained the victims while the illegal settlers fled the area. # United States *By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at [Julian@dropsitenews.com][43].* * **Trump official resigns citing Israeli influence over government:** Joe Kent resigned Tuesday as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, saying, “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” While a number of leaders in the Trump administration have acknowledged Israel’s role in compelling the United States to join them in their war against Iran, Kent is the first to directly cite the influence of the Israel lobby and seemingly imply corrupt motives behind the conflict. * **Momentum picks up for a vote on Gottheimer’s War Powers Resolution: **Pro-Israel congressman **Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.)** announced in a press release that he plans to force a vote on his War Powers Resolution, initially introduced as a watered-down countermeasure to the resolution brought forth by **Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)** and **Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)**. The vote could come as early as Thursday next week. This motion, if passed, would end the Trump administration’s illegal war of aggression against Iran by March 30, thirty days after it was originally introduced, a constraining timeline outlined specifically in the text of the legislation. * **CEO cashes out while laying off workers amid merger: **Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is set to walk away with an $887 million compensation package after the Trump administration facilitated a monopolistic merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. As the agreement is being finalized, thousands of workers are simultaneously set to lose their jobs. * **Progressives and special interests showdown in Illinois**: A wave of Democratic primaries defined by excessive special interest spending will come to an end Tuesday night as polls close at 8 p.m. ET. National progressive figures like **Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)**, **Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)**, and **Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)** have passed out a handful of endorsements to populist candidates like Junaid Ahmed and Juliana Stratton across the state to counter the influence of groups like AIPAC, the pro-crypto lobby, and pro-AI super PACs, who have concentrated their efforts on electing more conservative Democrats. * **Kat Abughazaleh’s changes website language on National Endowment for Democracy: **Kat Abughazaleh, who is seeking to replace** Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) **in today’s Illinois primaries, has [rewritten][44] the “issues” page of her campaign website, removing language that called for the State Department to work with the National Endowment for Democracy and other foreign capacity-building entities in the rebuilding of Gaza. Her website was updated to say that the earlier language “did not accurately reflect Kat’s views or the values of the campaign.” Abughazaleh’s foreign policy views have been a matter of concern before; her former foreign policy advisor [described][45] her to Drop Site as “firmly an interventionist,” though that criticism revolved primarily around her views on Russia and Taiwan. Abughazaleh picked up another important endorsement today, with **Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)** [joining][46] **Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)** in endorsing her ahead of today’s elections. * **Former presidents deny Trump’s claim about bombing Iran**: President Donald Trump [said][47] Monday that a former U.S. president told him he wished he had been the one to bomb Iran. Aides for George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama said no such conversations had occurred, and a source said the remark did not refer to Joe Biden. Trump repeated the claim twice during the day but declined to identify the person to whom he was referring. * **Federal judge blocks Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes: **A federal judge in Massachusetts [halted][48] a series of vaccine policy changes implemented by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ruling that the government bypassed established scientific procedures in altering immunization recommendations. The decision temporarily reverses actions taken by Kennedy’s newly appointed Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices and blocks the panel from meeting this week. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by medical organizations that argued the changes, which included reducing the number of diseases covered by routine childhood vaccinations and restricting access to Covid shots, were arbitrary and endangered public health. * **Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia released from ICE detention: **Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia, who had been [held][49] by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for nearly a year following the Columbia University Gaza protest crackdown, was released Monday on a $100,000 bond, according to The New York Times. An immigration judge granted the bond on March 13, marking the third court order for her release after the government previously blocked earlier rulings. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani noted that he personally asked President Trump last month to release Kordia, saying that he was “grateful that Leqaa has been released…after more than a year in detention for speaking up for Palestinian rights.” Drop Site contributor Areeba Fatima [points out][50] that a number of activists and organizations, including Aida Alami and the Sunrise Movement, have been tireless in pursuit of this result. Kordia, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem arrested by ICE on March 13, 2025 after attending Gaza solidarity protests at Columbia, had her protest-related charges later dropped. **More about her case can be read here, in an [article][51] from the New Yorker.** * **Private prison firms and lobbyists profit from expanding ICE detention:** More than 70,000 migrants are currently held in U.S. immigration detention facilities, most without criminal convictions, as private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic derive significant revenue from federal contracts tied to immigration enforcement. The companies and their lobbyists have spent millions of dollars influencing federal policy and funding for detention facilities, including large lobbying campaigns on K Street and substantial political donations. Migrant Insider has provided a profile of a few of these lobbyists and their firms. **That full report is available [here][52].** # Other International News * **Afghanistan says Pakistani raid on Kabul hospital killed hundreds: **Afghanistan’s Ministry of Health [said][53] a Pakistani raid on a hospital in Kabul killed 400 people and wounded about 250 others. Residents in the area told Drop Site News contributor Emran Feroz that the hospital itself was struck during the attack. Pakistan has not immediately commented on the allegation. * **U.S. reportedly demands Díaz-Canel step down in Cuba talks: **The Trump administration has [told][54] Cuban negotiators that President Miguel Díaz-Canel must step down for meaningful progress in U.S.-Cuba negotiations, according to The New York Times. U.S. officials are reportedly seeking his removal as a symbolic political concession while pressing Havana to open parts of its economy to American businesses and release political prisoners. Díaz-Canel, president since 2018, is widely seen as having limited authority within Cuba’s power structure, where the military-linked conglomerate GAESA and senior Communist Party figures hold significant influence. Also on Tuesday, Trump [called][55] Cuba “a beautiful island” and said he would have “the honor” of taking it. “Whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth.” * **Cuba suffers island-wide blackout amid deepening fuel shortages: **Cuba [reported][56] an island-wide blackout Monday after a “complete disconnection” of the national electrical system, affecting roughly 11 million residents, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines. Officials say the crisis is driven by severe fuel shortages linked to U.S. pressure on countries supplying oil to the island, leaving the grid reliant on solar power, natural gas, and aging thermoelectric plants. The outage—the sixth nationwide blackout in 18 months—has forced hospitals to postpone tens of thousands of surgeries as authorities begin restoration efforts that could take days. Cuban authorities said Tuesday that the system was gradually being restored, with service restored to most of the island. * **Police investigate chant at London Al Quds Day rally: **London’s Metropolitan Police [said][57] it has opened a new investigation after rapper Bobby Vylan led chants of “death to the IDF” during an Al Quds Day rally in central London on Sunday. Vylan previously led the same chant during a performance at the Glastonbury Festival last year. A prior police investigation into the Glastonbury chant ended without charges after prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to pursue a case. * **Probe examines alleged payments to Javier Milei over $Libra cryptocurrency promotion: **Argentina’s judiciary has uncovered evidence [suggesting][58] President Javier Milei may have been paid to promote the cryptocurrency $Libra, which is now under fraud investigation. El País reports investigators recovered deleted notes from businessman Mauricio Novelli’s phone describing a $5 million agreement tied to Milei publicly endorsing the token, with amounts matching millions later moved through crypto wallets. Prosecutors in Argentina and the United States are investigating the February 2025 collapse—after Milei promoted the token on X and its price spiked then crashed—as a possible insider-driven scam that left thousands of investors with losses. * **War returns to Iraq as political uncertainty deepens: **Rallies in Baghdad marking Al Quds Day and honoring Iran’s new Supreme Leader reflected growing mobilization among Iran-aligned paramilitaries as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran spills into Iraq, where recent strikes have killed members of the Popular Mobilization Forces and triggered attacks on U.S. positions. The violence has intensified political fractures within Iraq’s Shia establishment, with armed factions threatening retaliation while the government struggles to maintain authority, and with the potential ascension of Nouri al-Maliki, the country’s disgraced Shia prime minister, looking more likely. **Read Nabih Salih’s full dispatch from Iraq for Drop Site [here][59].** * **Ecuador launches U.S.-backed military operation: **President Daniel Noboa deployed 75,000 soldiers, rounding up children, and reportedly torturing a 20 year old man to death. In the days leading up to the operation, soldiers dismantled hundreds of public street cameras and imposed curfews that even barred journalists, normally exempt from such restrictions, from being in public after 11 p.m. A family from the city of Milagro came forward, alleging that the military had tortured their relative, Bryan Argenis Ledesma Franco, a man in his 20s, to death, placed his body in a pick-up truck, and left him at a hospital where he was [pronounced dead][60]. Noboa has issued 11 State of Exception decrees in the past year, effectively imposing a de facto martial law that grants both Ecuadorian soldiers and U.S. military personnel broad authority with minimal oversight. * **Colombian President claims Ecuador bombed border region:** Colombian President Petro claimed that a bomb had hit the border region, with the attack not coming from irregular armed groups but rather from a plane, suggesting the Ecuadorean military was to blame. # More from Drop Site * Melat Kiros, running to represent Colorado’s first congressional district, joined Julian Andreone to discuss her campaign against incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) Watch episode 3 of our new series “EYEING OFFICE,” interviewing 2026 congressional candidates, below. * In the days following the launch of the US and Israel’s war on Iran, the circumstances of a strike that killed at least 175 civilians at a girls’ school in Minab have been heavily debated — specifically, the question of which country’s military was behind the strike. As of Wednesday, the preliminary findings of an ongoing military investigation confirmed the US to be at fault. Drop Site’s Washington correspondent, Julian Andreone, asked members of Congress what they knew about the strikes and potential investigations into the subjects. Here’s what they said: **Programming note:** [You can sign up here to get updates from us][61] on our WhatsApp channel. If you want to continue getting this newsletter, you don’t have to do anything. But if this is too much—we do try to be mindful of your inbox—you can unsubscribe from this newsletter while continuing to get the rest of our reporting. 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As the Gulf Burns, Political Uncertainty Looms Over Iraq As a reader-funded independent news outlet, we operate free from the influence of governments, advertisers, and corporate backers. This is essential to our mission: to report on what matters most, beholden only to the truth. In that spirit, we made a commitment to ensure that our journalism is free for everyone, not locked behind a paywall. But that means we rely on the voluntary support of our community of readers. Please consider making a[ tax-deductible donation to support our work today][1]. [Subscribe now][2] Hundreds of people gather at Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 13, 2026, to participate in the 'International Quds Day' event in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Photo by Murtadha Al-Sudani/Anadolu via Getty Images *Story by Nabil Salih* BAGHDAD, IRAQ—Through two improvised checkpoints, men filed into Al-Ummah Park in central Baghdad’s Al-Tahrir Square on Friday to mark the celebration of Al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day). Behind the artist Jewad Selim’s Monument to Freedom, a relic from a secular society that seemed so out-of-place and obsolete, a few hundred mourners gathered underneath a sea of paramilitary flags. A succession of defiant chants came in unison, condemning the U.S. and pledging loyalty to the Supreme Leader in Tehran. Projected on a giant screen before them were the smiling faces of Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor, the recently murdered Ali Khamenei. The image soon gave way to another, with Ali’s son, the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, flanked by his elders and crowned with the words “fa‘azazna bi thalithin,” a cursive allusion to a Quranic verse from Surat Yasin: “We sent them two messengers, but they rejected both. So We reinforced the two with a third.” None of this was likely to impress U.S. President Donald Trump. As his air force rampages through history and geography, he placed a bounty on Mojtaba’s head and issued diktats on who may or may not be in charge in Baghdad. That night, “Death to America” rang against the derelict towers of Al-Tahrir. A child held an Iranian flag in one hand and an anti-Israel poster in the other. His fragile voice struggled to match the cacophonous chorus from the surrounding men: “Yes! Yes! Khamenei!” The Iraqi tricolor was a rare sight. Looming over the commotion was the immeasurable calamity of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, a regional conflagration into which Iraq, and the crisis of its government formation, have already been pulled. Only a few years ago, in 2019, hundreds of thousands of protesters marched into Al-Tahrir against the U.S.-made regime and its neoliberal policies. Hundreds were mowed down with impunity. In Al-Tahrir, their faded slogans and graffitied art remain, profane traces from a defeated generation. Now, 23 years after George W. Bush and his neoconservative mob bombed Iraq into a fractured death world, U.S.-Israeli strikes have returned, committing massacres against the destitute youth who fought the terror the War on Terror had engendered in the image of the Islamic State. By March 12, 27 members of Al-Hashd al-Shaabi, the constellation of paramilitary units also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, were killed and 50 others were wounded. A few days later, on March 16, news of another massacre came from the border town of Al-Qa’im, in western Iraq. Sabah al-Nu’man, a spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi military, [said in a statement][3] that eight paramilitary members were killed in “a treacherous aggression” that left seven others wounded. By the time news arrived in Baghdad, plumes of smoke towered over Al-Rasheed Hotel, a 1980s landmark inside the Green Zone where foreign reporters and diplomatic missions have long stayed. No casualties were reported. Iraqis are not oblivious to Iran’s role in their politics, nor have they forgotten the corpses dumped by sectarian Sunni and Shia death squads in their streets during the occupation. But like the Shia, the paramilitaries are not a monolith. Not all factions are involved in the current mayhem, and their role in fighting the Islamic caliphate cannot be dismissed. The modest meals around which the fallen volunteers gathered are far removed from the extravagant villas of the Shia elite. Their images, already adorning city streets before the war broke out, have become a symbol of the country’s unspeakable inequality. After George W. Bush’s “regime change,” Iraqi bodies became superfluous. They filled morgues, perished along perilous migration routes to Europe, or joined the sprawling state apparatus and its paramilitary groups. Some still dare to die fighting in Vladimir Putin’s army for a living. The U.S. bombing is condemned by many, as are the paramilitaries’ attacks on oilfields and the misfiring rockets landing on people’s homes. The resurgent violence evokes familiar images, when decades of war erected the misshapen future they inhabit today. [Subscribe now][4] On Friday night, security forces marked every corner and side street, their amphibious combat vehicles and SUVs blocking civilian traffic. Dozens of women sported black abayas and trekked from the downtown’s squalid sidewalks into the park. The buses shuttling them in were parked in lifeless streets nearby. Along Al-Saadoun Street, where Baghdadis once flocked into now-dead cinemas for the likes of Costa-Gavras and Jean-Pierre Melville, some two dozen school kids marched towards Al-Tahrir, a poorly choreographed spectacle missing its audience. Leading them was a flagbearer waving the Iranian flag. In their hands were images of the schoolchildren made forever asleep by the cowardly strike in Minab. The atrocity reminded Iraqis of both the 1991 Al-Amiriyah shelter massacre and the 1987 bombing of Bilat al-Shuhada’ elementary, where an Iranian rocket killed dozens and wounded hundreds of students in Baghdad during the Iraq-Iran war. I stood watching as a paramilitary parade coursed its way through the unlit avenue when someone dangled his penis and relieved himself on the curb. He busied himself with a phone call as the urine splattered between his legs. The procession passed; the pool of piss remained. Later that night, three members of Al-Hashd al-Shaabi were assassinated in Arasat al-Hindiyah, a former bourgeois neighborhood where Saddam Hussein’s cronies caroused before the new Shia elite moved in. Among the murdered was a prominent figure in Kata’ib Hezbollah known by his nom de guerre Abu Ali al-Ameri. At dawn, the U.S. embassy was attacked for a second time since the start of the war. It later urged U.S. citizens to leave the country at once. The “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” put a $100,000 reward for tips leading to the capture or elimination of U.S. officials—and claimed responsibility for the downing of KC-135 refueling aircraft and the death of its six crew members. U.S. Central Command denied the claim, saying “the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.” Coffins of Kataib Hezbollah members killed in a US-Israeli airstrike in Iraq are carried during a funeral ceremony at the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq, on March 14, 2026. Photo by Karar Essa/Anadolu via Getty Images. After Al-Ameri’s murder Kata’ib Hezbollah announced the death of Abu Ali al-Askari, another senior figure. A chasm widened within the Shia establishment. Qais al-Khazali, leader of the powerful Shia paramilitary group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, said “let the criminals know their punishment would be severe.” Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, whose units were the target of repeated strikes, said “our partners at home” had tipped off the Americans, and “both the murderers and the agents shall pay a heavy price.” Kata’ib Sayid al-Shuhada, whose positions were attacked by Apache helicopters on March 7, issued repeated statements urging the state to protect its torn sovereignty. As the incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani reiterated a tired message that Iraq will not be “a launchpad” against its neighbors, a Telegram channel affiliated with Kata’ib Hezbollah issued another statement threatening to attack Syria in the event of “any hostile move” from Damascus against Hezbollah, the staunch ally repelling another attack on Lebanon. Al-Sudani dismissed a number of intelligence officials and pledged to hold those jeopardizing Iraq’s stability to account, but few believed he’d act on his words. One paramilitary member threatened to “cut the ears and shave the moustache” of anyone who stands in the way. By Sunday, images from a local TV station showed another drone winding its way to U.S. positions in Baghdad. By nightfall, a succession of explosions rattled western Baghdad, targeting Victory Base and the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, a U.S. logistic and diplomatic hub near the city’s airport. Security forces said five were wounded, including an engineer. Saraya Awliya’ al-Damm offered another version, claiming to have killed six U.S. troops and wounded four others. I spoke with Safaa Khalaf, the analyst and investigative journalist, in a self-imposed exile in Norway. He said, “the current escalation exposes the fragmentation of Iraq’s political order, proving the failure of the political system in transitioning towards an accountable state in control of its political and security decisions more than twenty years after the U.S. invasion.” By Friday, the government resembled a harmless spectator. A French soldier was also killed in another drone attack in Kurdistan, where the Islamic Resistance has been launching barrages against U.S. and NATO forces. Italy was forced to pull its troops out of Camp Singara in Erbil. ## The Next Head of State Suspended over the broiling turmoil is the question of the next Iraqi head of state. The Coordination Framework, the ruling coalition of Shia parliamentary blocs, is torn between placating Washington and preserving their domination over the state apparatus or succumbing to pressure from the Western hegemon and finding its alternative in Al-Sudani, whose Reconstruction and Development bloc won the parliamentary elections in the fall. In [a column][5] for the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Iraq’s top judge Faiq Zidan opined on a decades-old question. He said, belatedly, that according to the Iraqi constitution, the “largest parliamentary bloc” is the one that wins the election, not the one later formed, after backroom deals are sealed. It remains unclear what impact his words will have on government formation, and the backroom intrigue continues. Nouri al-Maliki, the discredited former premier, is grooming himself for another stint in power, and behind him lurk a host of political figures and an embattled Iranian regime keen on preserving their material interests in Iraq. A leader of the Da‘wa Party, he is a pillar of Shia politics. Despite his contempt for the lower caste followers of the Sadrist movement, his anti-Sunni rhetoric, and the blame he assigned the Kurds for the rise of the caliphate, he is the image of the strongman needed by an increasingly obsolete generation of exiled Shia politicians to overcome their anxiety in a shape-shifting region. But Al-Maliki was singled out by Trump. “I’m hearing that the Great Country of Iraq might make a very bad choice by reinstalling Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Last time Al-Maliki was in power, the Country descended into poverty and total chaos.” He was right. “Iraqis’ [collective] memory is burdened with distressing memories,” Sajjad Salim, a former parliamentarian who rose to prominence after the anti-establishment uprising of 2019, told me over the phone. In Al-Maliki’s first year in power alone 30,000 civilians perished in violence, according to Iraq Body Count. A protester holds a portrait of former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki during a protest against President Donald Trump near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, on January 29, 2026. Photo by Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/picture alliance via Getty Images. The Coordination Framework’s intent to sponsor Al-Maliki’s political rehabilitation has shocked Iraqis. Nida Alahmad, a University of Edinburgh professor whose [forthcoming][6] book concerns the Iraqi state and its undoing, told me that “Al-Maliki is a figure that is closely associated with the forces that are understood to have fragmented the state and are benefiting from this fragmentation.” His image was irredeemably stained by lethal crackdowns on civil dissent and the failure to protect Iraq’s territory before the advance of the Islamic State, a time when an army of nonexistent “ghost soldiers” drained the state’s revenues but evaporated in time of need. The consequences of Al-Maliki’s rule are enduring. Kali Rubaii, an anthropologist at Purdue University, told me in an email exchange that “the post-2003 regime joined the U.S. in its deployment of War on Terror rhetoric to justify shutting down popular demands and deploying coercive force as a modus operandi that ultimately dismantled safety, security, and wellbeing among the general population.” By nominating Al-Maliki, the Coordination Framework reminded Iraqis of the disposability of their lives. But his successors didn’t fare much better, allowing the murder, displacement, and assassination of thousands, most recently the anti-imperialist women right’s defender Yanar Mohammed, the co-founder of Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq who was killed by two gunmen outside her Baghdad home this month. “Regardless of the changing faces in power for the past quarter century,” Rubaii told me, “Iraqi people have been shouldering the immense imperial burden of the War on Terror, including the insulting rhetoric of salvation by subjugation.” Before the unprovoked U.S.-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic, the U.S. envoy to Syria and Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack met with Al-Maliki in Baghdad to convey Trump’s diktats that it “should not be allowed to happen again.” Al-Maliki was adamant that he would not withdraw his nomination. He later made overtures to Washington, pronouncing on X his intention to reform the system and, of course, opening Iraq’s market to U.S. and European businesses. But Al-Maliki has long been seen as a strong ally of Tehran. Salim, the former MP, told me that Iran still “has the long hand” in Baghdad’s politics. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the onslaught on Hezbollah’s leaders and Lebanese territories during the ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza, Iraq resembles Iran’s “last bastion of [defending its] national security.” Now a regional war is shuffling positions and forcing reconsiderations. As Tehran and the region’s capitals erupt in flames, Shia elites and armed factions seemed to be initially at odds. Against the fiery statements of factional leaders, Al-Maliki retracted his condolences on X for Ali Khamenei. He called for restraint, insisting the next government should submit to no ‘axis’ and maintain its independence. Paramilitary leaders have opened fire on Shia politicians. [Subscribe now][7] Earlier in March, I stood under an overpass where paramilitaries and their supporters protested, wanting to storm the Green Zone over the Tigris. Bitter chants rang through the night. Al-Sudani, who had been trying to curb their activities, was heckled as “a coward” and “an agent.” On March 12, Sadiqoun, the political front of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, said that “sovereignty” needs to translate into concrete actions rather than remain a vacuous term in official jargon. The previous weekend, parliamentarians were filmed chanting and making their allegiance to Khamenei heard, condemning the U.S. and Israel and hailing praises over the resistance. Abu Alaa’ al-Wala’i, the secretary-general of Kata’ib Sayid al-Shuhada’, describes the crisis as “an existential war against the Shia.” It requires rising to the challenge, he said, when many are hesitant to take a position on the side of the Islamic Republic and its allies. Akram al-Ka‘abi, the leader of Harakt al-Nujaba’, issued one scathing invective after another. Perhaps irked by Al-Sudani’s timidity and Al-Maliki’s overtures to Trump, he lashed out against those yet to condemn the U.S. actions and still “pandering to the Americans.” The cause is not negotiable, he declared, inviting fellow Arabs to form their own armed factions, to which he’d be open to bring his expertise, a statement that would only raise the concern of Iraq’s neighbors in the Arabian Peninsula. By Friday, after a week of silence, Al-Maliki was abandoning his cautiousness for a [caustic condemnation][8] of “the American-backed Zionist forces.” The paramilitaries’ pressure had paid off, and Al-Sudani now seems to be on the back foot. It was in the early years of occupation, Alahmad told me, that “militia-backed political groups with strong ethno-sectarian agendas moved into the space of state authority and have since then firmly consolidated their demarcated domains of authority over Iraq’s economy and politics.” Some had fought alongside Iran in the 1980s, others joined U.S. mercenary James Steele in his torture chambers. Al-Maliki had fought some of them in his early years in power, most notably Muqtada al-Sadr’s Jayish al-Mahdi. Al-Sadr, having won the 2021 elections, has withdrawn from politics and decided to be on the sidelines in the current upheaval. The popular cleric’s Shia foes have since closed their ranks and formed their own government, represented by the Coordination Framework’s current front man, Al-Sudani. Now both the paramilitary groups and the genocide enabler at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have their own visions of what the next government should be. While it is tempting to overstate the intra-Shia rift, both the leading Shia figures in the porous apparatus that lends the paramilitaries their legitimacy and the very paramilitaries that undermine the state share an interest in the regime’s longevity. As Khalaf puts it, hinting at the repeated suppression of peaceful uprisings, “the Shia political actors that run the state and control its political and security affairs have long found a protector in these groups.” After the toppling of Al-Assad’s regime in Syria and the takeover by Ahmed al-Sharaa, what the U.S. wants is another vassal, one “beholden to a new imperial hegemony [and] sponsored by Washington.” It is a shoe that many Shia, including Al-Maliki, have comfortably filled before, their affiliation with Tehran notwithstanding. Al-Sudani has so far been busy with masquerading this ruin. His infrastructure projects allowed real-estate investments and corruption to bloom, turning an ancient capital into a gentrified caricature no different than Doha and other “old towns” in the Gulf. In Sharm el-Sheikh, Al-Sudani posed with Trump before the cameras. Trump mumbled something about “plenty of oil.” The two gave cameramen the thumbs-up. Al-Sudani’s urban spectacle channels the illusion of progress, espousing the state’s interests with that of a budding class of nouveaux riches and elite investors. But the proscenium might be coming down before the play is over. [Leave a comment][9] [Subscribe now][10] *Nabil Salih is a writer and photographer from Baghdad. His writing has also appeared in the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books, among other publications. He is an incoming PhD candidate at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Follow him @NabilAlMafrachi on X and @nabilsalih.bsky.social.* [1]: https://givebutter.com/dsn-substack [2]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? [3]: https://x.com/IraqiPMO/status/2033621361537466781 [4]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? [5]: https://aawsat.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A3%D9%8A/5246785… [6]: https://www.cambridge.org/iq/universitypress/subjects/pol… [7]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? [8]: https://x.com/nourialmalikiiq/status/2032201052603498846 [9]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iraq-al-maliki-trump-iran-… [10]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iraq-al-maliki-trump-iran-war

Israel Killed Over a Dozen Lebanese Paramedics in Three Days, Now Claiming That Ambulances Are “Hezbollah” Targets *Drop Site is a reader-funded, independent news outlet. Without your support, we can’t operate. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a [501(c)(3) tax-deductible donation today][1].* [Subscribe now][2] A man wearing the logo of the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Organisation stands in the remains of a health centre in Bourj Qalaway, following an Israeli attack. Photo by Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images. BEIRUT, LEBANON—In early October 2025, Lebanese paramedic Haj Qassem Sultan stood outside Marjayoun Government Hospital in southern Lebanon and [addressed][3] Lebanese TV. “Our message is clear. Even if we are killed one by one, we will not abandon our duty,” he said. “We will continue to serve Khiam and Marjayoun and Al-Taybeh and Debbine and all of our sacred land.” He was attending a memorial for seven of his colleagues who were killed exactly one year earlier in an Israeli airstrike on ambulances parked outside the hospital. Five other paramedics, including Sultan, were wounded in the attack, in what human rights groups [said][4] was an apparent [war crime][5]. On Friday, Sultan was killed in another Israeli strike on an Islamic Health Authority (IHA) medical center in Burj Qalaouiyah in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil District. The bombing destroyed the facility, killing 12 people, including on-duty doctors, paramedics, nurses, and three patients. The majority of the victims worked with the IHA, a healthcare and emergency service provider affiliated with Hezbollah that operates rescue and medical services in Beirut’s southern suburbs and across much of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Sultan “was very loved, very respected,” IHA spokesperson Mahmoud Karaki told Drop Site News. “He was always present among the people. Everyone knew him.” The day after the attack, Israel doubled down on its attacks on emergency workers with its military spokesperson, [claiming][6] without evidence that Hezbollah was making “military use of medical facilities and ambulances” and that occupation forces would target them if they did not cease. A strike on Monday on a house in Kfar Sir, just north of the Litani River killed one person. When an ambulance from the IHA arrived, a second strike killed two paramedics and wounded another, [according][7] to the state-run National News Agency. Two more IHA ambulances were targeted on Monday in separate strikes, killing four more paramedics. “Some of our personnel have been killed at our medical centers, others while they were out in the field, trying to pull people out from under the rubble,” he said. “The exact place they went to do their rescue work was targeted again once they arrived,” he added, a tactic known as a double tap strike. The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned the escalating attacks on medical workers in Lebanon. “These incidents highlight the ongoing assault on Lebanon’s healthcare system, which is crucial for the populations it serves,” Ghebreyesus wrote in a social media [post][8]. “WHO condemns this tragic loss of life and emphasizes that health workers must always be protected. According to international humanitarian law, medical personnel and facilities should never be attacked or militarized.” Israel dramatically escalated its assault on Lebanon with relentless airstrikes and ground incursions on March 2, two days after the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran. Last week Israel ordered the forced displacement of all of southern Lebanon and launched a ground invasion. Over the past two weeks, at least 850 people have been killed across the country, including over 100 children. More than 850,000 people have been displaced. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz [likened][9] the operation to the genocidal assault on Gaza and said on Monday that Lebanese residents in the south of the Litani River would not be able to return to their homes indefinitely. Among the most targeted groups of Israel’s expanded military campaign have been medical workers. Over the past two weeks, Israeli attacks have struck 13 medical and ambulance centers and forced five major hospitals to shut down, according to the health ministry. [At least 38][10] have been killed so far, including personnel from the IHA, the Red Cross, and the Islamic Risala Scout Association, a medical and rescue organization affiliated with Lebanon’s Amal Movement. The IHA has been the hardest hit, with more than two dozen killed, according to Karaki. The Israeli military itself has been accused of using ambulances in military operations in Lebanon. Most notably, during its [attack][11] on the town of Nabi Chit in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley last week that killed 41 people, the Lebanese Army accused Israeli commandos of moving through the area using ambulances marked with the insignia of the IHA. Human rights groups say Israel’s targeting of medical personnel and infrastructure is part of a deadly pattern that emerged during Israel’s assault on Gaza. Hospitals in the enclave were systematically bombed, raided, and destroyed and [some 1,700 health care workers][12] were killed during the first two years of the genocide, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. During Israel’s assault on Lebanon between October 8, 2023 and late November 2024 when a “ceasefire” was put into effect, Israeli attacks killed at least 222 medical and civil defense personnel and injured hundreds more, according to the Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Researchers with Amnesty International[ examined four cases][13] in which Israeli forces struck first responders in Lebanon during that period. According to Kristine Bekerle, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, the organization found no evidence that the facilities or vehicles hit in those attacks were being used for military purposes at the time. “We looked at attacks affecting the Islamic Health Authority, but we also examined strikes on organizations with no connection to Hezbollah, like the Lebanese Civil Defense and the Red Cross, and in different parts of the country,” Bekerle told Drop Site. “We saw a range of civilian actors—some loosely affiliated with Hezbollah, others with no affiliation at all—being killed, wounded, or targeted.” “From an international law perspective, civilians and civilian objects should not be targeted for attack,” Bekerle added. “But healthcare workers, facilities, and ambulances are especially protected.” Bekerle noted that the Israeli military has a long record of publishing lies, but even if the claim were true, it would not justify broad attacks. Under international humanitarian law, an army must demonstrate that a specific object is being used for military purposes, for example, a particular ambulance in a particular location at a specific time. “You cannot simply declare that all ambulances are legitimate targets,” Bekerle said. “What we’re seeing between Lebanon and Gaza is this big broadening of what constitutes an ‘acceptable’ target to the military,” she added. “The reality is that a civilian entity affiliated with a non-state armed group is not automatically targetable.” Israel’s massive and unprecedented displacement orders in Lebanon have made the work of Lebanese first responders all the more dangerous. Moussa Shaalan, a medic with the Lebanese Civil Defense in the coastal city of Sour, told Drop Site that the current war is the hardest he has experienced in more than three decades of service. “The difference this time is that there are many more people in the villages,” Shaalan said. “They say they can’t afford the rent in other parts of the country…and that when they fled north, they were humiliated. They tell you they would rather die at home,” he added. “So the demand for emergency services under dangerous conditions is much higher.” Most of the places being struck are still densely populated and full of children, Shaalan added. He fears the death toll will continue to rise, particularly since Israel has begun targeting civilian infrastructure such as bridges and roads that enable rescue teams to reach the wounded. Karaki, the IHA spokesperson, said Israel’s attacks on first responders are part of a broader effort to force people from the region. “The presence of a team of first responders offers a last remaining sense of security for people who have chosen to remain steadfast on their land,” he said. “That’s why the occupation targets healthcare workers who have nothing to do with what’s happening on the battlefield.” [Leave a comment][14] [Share][15] [1]: https://givebutter.com/dsn-substack [2]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? [3]: https://www.instagram.com/p/DV1zF-Ojea-/ [4]: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/10/30/lebanon-israeli-attac… [5]: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/03/lebanon-is… [6]: https://x.com/AvichayAdraee/status/2032725479879221755 [7]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/en/news/153006/security-update… [8]: https://x.com/drtedros/status/2032853185996743140 [9]: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/katz-on-leba… [10]: https://www.moph.gov.lb/en/Media/announcements#/en/Media/… [11]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-n… [12]: https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territo… [13]: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde18/9062/2025/en/ [14]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/lebanon-medical-workers-pa… [15]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/lebanon-medical-workers-pa… https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/lebanon-medical-workers-pa…

Iranian Officials Say They Have Been Ignoring Witkoff's Private Requests to Talk *Reader support is what makes Drop Site possible. Without it, this journalism wouldn’t exist. If you’re able, [please consider making a tax-deductible donation][1] or upgrading to a paid subscription today.* [Subscribe now][2] U.S Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff listens to President Donald Trump speak to reporters at Trump National Doral Miami on March 9, 2026 in Doral, Florida. Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images. President Donald Trump has been leading a double life in prosecuting his war against Iran. In public, he regularly boasts that Iran’s military might has been decimated, its leadership killed off, and that the few officials remaining alive in Tehran are begging him to talk. “They want to negotiate. They want to negotiate badly,” Trump said Sunday night. “We’re talking to them. But I don’t think they’re ready, but they’re getting pretty close.” Behind the scenes, it is the Trump administration that has been asking for talks. Two Iranian officials told Drop Site that Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff personally sent messages to officials in Tehran, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, last week exploring possibilities for resuming negotiations. Iran has not replied to Witkoff. The Iranian officials told Drop Site that Iran has also received messages from the White House via third countries. “Because of decisions made by [Iran’s] top authorities, no response was sent to his messages,” a senior Iranian official told Drop Site. “The message here is clear: Iran has once again closed the window for any direct negotiations,” he added. “The authority to declare a ceasefire rests solely with the country’s Supreme Leader. It’s not something the foreign minister, or any other official or organization in Iran, would send messages about to a foreign party.” In response to request for comment, a White House spokesperson sent Drop Site the following: “The radical, left-wing Drop Site News is clearly carrying water for the Iranian terrorist regime — and reports like these based on pure fiction and citing unnamed anonymous sources should be discarded immediately. Iran feeds this fake news media outlet propaganda and they publish it as fact, which is abhorrent, America Last behavior. Operation Epic Fury will continue unabated until President Trump, as Commander-in-Chief, determines that the goals of Operation Epic Fury, including for Iran to no longer pose a military threat, have been fully realized.” Witkoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a series of media appearances over the weekend, Araghchi publicly rejected Trump’s characterizations. “We never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiation,” he told CBS on Sunday. “We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes. And this is what we have done so far, and we continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory.” One of the sources, a senior Iranian official who spoke with Drop Site on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss potential negotiations, said the U.S. outreach indicates that the Trump administration underestimated Iran’s resolve and is seeking an offramp. “Many direct and indirect requests for a ceasefire have been coming from the U.S.” over the past week, said the senior Iranian official. “Now that they’ve seen the Iranian side isn’t responding to those requests, they’re trying to make up for their embarrassment by twisting the narrative in the media.” [Subscribe now][3] “This whole thing is completely false,” the senior Iranian official continued, referring to Trump’s repeated claims that Iran is asking for a ceasefire. “The responses that we provide [to third party countries] for a ceasefire are being publicly presented by [Trump] as if they were his own positions.” He said that Iran has made clear to all nations that inquire about potential ceasefire talks that Tehran will not enter into any agreement that leaves the door open for continued U.S. and Israeli attacks by Iran. “The United States appears to be seeking a temporary ceasefire in order to assess the outcomes thus far and to employ a combination of diplomacy and pressure to advance its broader objectives within Iran’s political system,” the senior Iranian official added. He said that while many nations have reached out to Tehran urging it to engage in talks with the U.S., their efforts should instead be aimed at Trump and his administration. On a daily basis, Trump and his War Secretary Pete Hegseth stand before cameras and offer sweeping assessments of their obliteration of Iran’s missile and drone capacity. U.S. Central Command posts grainy videos of strikes blowing up airplanes, naval vessels, and infrastructure. “We have achieved a 90% reduction in their ballistic missile launches and a 95% reduction in their drone attacks. They don’t have too many missiles left,” Trump said Monday. “This is a paper tiger that we’re dealing with now. It wasn’t a paper tiger two weeks ago.” Yet Iranian strikes against U.S. bases and assets in the region, as well as attacks on Israel, continue. Global oil and gas prices have risen dramatically over the past two weeks, as Iran has threatened to attack any U.S. or Israeli-linked tankers that traverse the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. International oil shipments through the strait have plummeted to [less than 10%][4] of their pre-war levels. At the same time, Iranian exports last week exceeded their normal levels. “Through effective management of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has secured a notable advantage at sea,” the senior Iranian official said. “The Strait of Hormuz is not closed in general, it is closed only to America and its allies, and we will continue this policy as long as the attacks continue,” Araghchi told Al Araby Al Jadeed on Sunday. Tehran has also suggested it would be open to increasing the flow of traffic through the area as long as the financial transactions were paid for in Chinese yuan. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed Monday that the U.S. has been allowing Iranian ships to pass through Hormuz without bombing them. “The Iranian ships have been getting out already, and we’ve let that happen to supply the rest of the world,” he told CNBC. Last Wednesday, the CEOs of Chevron, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips held talks with senior officials at the White House and [warned][5] of grave consequences if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened. One oil executive told the Wall Street Journal that if oil reached $120 a barrel, it would cause “economic destruction.” Those meetings came as Trump is pressing the U.S. military to come up with options for stripping Iran of its dominance in the strait. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (C) participates in the traditional Quds Day rally in the capital Tehran on March 13, 2026. Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images. This weekend, Trump claimed he was assembling a multinational coalition to escort ships, and the Pentagon recently approved the rapid deployment of at least 2,000 U.S. soldiers from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. “I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their territory,” Trump said Sunday, saying that NATO nations as well as China should participate. “They should help us. You could make the case that maybe we shouldn’t be there at all, because we don’t need it. We have a lot of oil.” Many nations have expressed reservations about participating in such operations and some—including Germany, Greece, Japan, and Australia—have ruled out joining any Hormuz mission. Trump has suggested he may postpone his trip to China scheduled for later this month if Beijing does not agree to aid U.S. operations in the strait, and has warned of a “very bad future” for NATO if it does not participate. “This war has nothing to do with NATO. It’s not NATO’s war,” said Stefan Kornelius, a spokesperson for the German chancellor, in a press briefing on Monday. “I would also like to remind you that the U.S. and Israel did not consult us before the war, and that Washington explicitly stated at the start of the war that European assistance was neither necessary nor desired.” Trump’s decision to deploy Marines, combined with recent U.S. strikes on the Iranian island of Kharg, could indicate that the U.S. is contemplating an operation to occupy the island, which houses Iran’s most important oil terminal through which 90 percent of its crude oil exports run. Trump said the U.S. has refrained from directly bombing the oil depots on Kharg but said that if Iran directly prevents ships from passing the Strait of Hormuz, “I will immediately reconsider this decision.” “No one should read into anything more than what the president announced,” a senior White House official told [Axios][6]. “The president has made no decisions on Kharg Island,” the official said, adding, “The president is not going to wait around and let the Iranians dictate the pace of the conflict.” Iranian naval forces have spent decades wargaming in the Strait of Hormuz, including exercises that began on February 16, less than two weeks before the U.S. and Israel launched the war. These preparations have focused on asymmetric attacks on larger military vessels, utilizing fastboats, drones, and anti-ship cruise missiles. If Trump decides to move toward military confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz, it would increase the risks to U.S. troops, placing them within direct reach of Iran’s shorter range munitions and smaller naval attack vessels and maritime missile systems. “Everything they have done during this period has been the result of miscalculation and error,” Araghchi told Al Araby Al Jadeed. “The attack on Kharg was a mistake, and occupying Kharg would be an even bigger mistake. As we said before, we are waiting for American ground forces to enter our territory, because we know how to confront them.” In response to the Iranian stance in the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia has increased its oil output through its western coast and oil tankers have begun traveling through the Red Sea in large numbers. But these ships will ultimately need to ship their cargo through the Bab al Mandeb strip where they could potentially face a blockade from Yemen’s Ansar Allah. While the group, which controls large parts of Yemen, technically has a ceasefire agreement with the US, signed in May 2025, there have been indications it will enter the war in defense of Iran. Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a senior member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau, said on March 14 that a “zero hour”—a coordinated campaign of military operations—could be declared soon. “All options are on the table,” Al-Bukhaiti told RT Arabic. “If we are compelled to use the Bab al Mandeb card, we will use this in a flexible manner by targeting all the countries involved in the aggression against Lebanon and Iran.” ## **“The End of the War is in Our Hands”** Even before the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks on February 28, Iran vowed that it would not repeat the “12-Day War” of June 2025. Then, as with the current war, the U.S. claimed to be negotiating with Iran only to turn around and launch massive bombings. The ceasefire that ended the June war was requested by the U.S. and Israel and, from Iran’s perspective, it was a strategic pause aimed at preparing for the wider war that began last month. “They went back, prepared themselves again, and attacked us once more,” Araghchi said Sunday. “This scenario cannot be repeated. We will end this war when we guarantee that it will not be repeated, and that requires a decisive and final conclusion to the war.” Iranian officials have told Drop Site that they will not consider any ceasefire proposals until Tehran believes it has convinced the U.S. and the world that Iran will not accept repeated and periodic U.S. and Israeli military strikes. “The end of the war is in our hands,” said Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a veteran commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an interview on Iranian television on March 14. He said that as part of any ceasefire negotiations Iran would seek reparations for the damage done during the U.S.-Israeli bombing and reiterated Tehran’s call for the U.S. to withdraw its military presence in the Persian Gulf. The senior Iranian official also said that Tehran would only consider a ceasefire if it also included Lebanon and Iraq and was certified by the United Nations Security Council. Unlike previous military confrontations where Iran has choreographed its retaliatory strikes against Israel and U.S. bases in the region ahead of time, the past two weeks have seen the Iranian military conduct unprecedented missile and drone strikes across the Persian Gulf as well as a steady pace of attacks on Israel. “Iran’s strategy is centered on diversifying its attacks and opening multiple fronts against the U.S. and Israel over an extended period,” the senior official said. “The focus will be on gradually wearing down the opponent and delivering more effective blows to U.S. and Israeli interests, in order to create the necessary conditions for a broad and sustainable ceasefire.” The senior Iranian official told Drop Site that Tehran understands it is fighting an asymmetric war and is confident in its ability to endure the U.S.-Israeli bombing. More than 1,400 people have been killed in the U.S.-Israeli bombings and more than 18,500 injured, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. Among the dead are at least 223 women and 200 children—41 of them under the age of two. Iranian state media and news outlets close to the IRGC have suggested that Iranian forces may soon begin targeting the offices of large tech companies in Israel and the Persian Gulf, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Nvidia, and Palantir. Iranian strikes have forced the closure of Gulf airports and spurred an exodus of Americans, Europeans, and other Westerners from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. The U.S. has been forced to abandon a number of military facilities and move personnel to hotels or out of the region. [Subscribe now][7] “Continuing these strikes—if carried out precisely and without harming the citizens of these countries—can play a very effective role in applying pressure to achieve a ceasefire,” the senior Iranian official said. “There are very deep economic ties between American companies and these countries. Threatening those interests would be a powerful leverage to pressure the Trump administration.” With the exception of Oman, the Persian Gulf nations that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have refused to issue any condemnations of the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran. Instead, they have portrayed Iran as the aggressor and accused it of engaging in wanton attacks on their sovereignty and dismissing any suggestion that Iran has a right to target U.S. bases or assets housed within their borders. On March 11, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution drafted by Bahrain on behalf of the GCC that denounced Iran’s “egregious attacks” and demanded that Iran “immediately and unconditionally cease from any provocation or threats to neighboring States, including the use of proxies.” The resolution did not mention either the U.S. or Israel, nor did it issue any condemnation or expressions of concern over the killing of Iranian civilians or the bombing of Iranian schools, apartment buildings, hospitals, oil and gas facilities and heritage sites. While Iran continues to speak to officials from some GCC countries, it has made no secret of its anger with them. “The situation is not good at all. This war was ignited by the United States and the Zionist entity,” said Arraghchi. “They did not condemn the attack on Iran, and that is truly regrettable.” Iran has acknowledged that some of its strikes against U.S. military bases and other assets in the Gulf have inflicted “collateral damage,” and Iranian officials have pointed to an apology issued by President Masoud Pezeshkian to Iran’s Arab neighbors on March 7. Iranian officials maintain that their strikes are aimed at U.S. and Israeli military and intelligence structures. Iran has also claimed that in some cases, it has struck sites in Gulf countries based on intelligence they were used to directly attack Iran. Gulf countries have denied that their territory is being used in any attacks, despite the presence of key U.S. installations such as the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain or CENTCOM in Qatar. But Araghchi said that Iran has intelligence that some of the strikes on Kharg island came from missiles launched from the UAE. The New York Times recently [verified][8] video showing ballistic missiles being launched at Iran from Bahrain. Araghchi denied that Iran has deliberately targeted any civilian sites in Gulf countries that have no connection to the U.S. or Israel. In some cases, Iran has acknowledged it did hit hotels or other civilian buildings, but has claimed those sites were being used by U.S. soldiers or Israeli intelligence. This is the same justification Israel has repeatedly employed to defend its strikes on civilian sites in Gaza and international law experts have widely denounced the practice as illegal. Iran has also denied being behind a range of attacks over the past two weeks, including in Cyprus, Turkey and in several Gulf countries and has accused the U.S. and Israel of conducting false flag attacks in an effort to try to further pull other nations into an overt conflict with Iran. “We are ready to sit with our friends in the region and form an investigative committee to determine which targets were struck and whether they were American or not,” Araghchi told Al Araby Al Jadeed. He claimed that Iran has intelligence that Israel and the U.S. have cloned Tehran’s Shahed drones and are using them to conduct strikes on civilian sites in the Gulf. Iran has not publicly released any evidence to support these claims. In a [post on X][9] Sunday, CENTCOM denied the allegations. “U.S. attack drones are only targeting Iranian military capabilities to eliminate threats posed to the region,” read the post. On Monday, Ali Larijani, the chair of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, published a six point message addressed to Muslims across the world and to Islamic governments in which he defended Iran’s actions in responding to the U.S.- Israeli war. “Today the confrontation is between America and Israel on one side, and Iran, the Muslim nations, and the forces of resistance on the other. So which side do you stand with?” Larijani [wrote][10]. “Think about the future of the Islamic world. You know that America is not loyal to you and that Israel is your enemy. Pause for a moment and reflect on yourselves and on the future of the region.” [Leave a comment][11] [Share][12] *Jawa Ahmad, Drop Site News’s Middle East Research Fellow, contributed to this report.* [1]: https://givebutter.com/dsn-substack [2]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? [3]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? [4]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/business/energy-enviro… [5]: https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/oil-industry-warn… [6]: https://www.axios.com/2026/03/16/trump-iran-hormuz-strait… [7]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? [8]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/world/middleeast/bahra… [9]: https://x.com/centcom/status/2033190759654981777?s=46 [10]: https://x.com/alilarijani_ir/status/2033552693759787104?s=46 [11]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-war-trump-witkoff-ara… [12]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-war-trump-witkoff-ara… https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-war-trump-witkoff-ara…

Trump struggles to secure Strait of Hormuz; Israel launches ground invasion of Lebanon; North Korea conducts new missile tests *Iran hit with “wide-scale wave of strikes” as the war enters its third week. U.S. airstrikes [hit][1] oil-production hub. More Marines and warships being [sent][2] to the Middle East. Trump [warns][3] allies against refusing to send ships to Strait of Hormuz. Araghchi says Strait of Hormuz only closed to “enemies.” IRGC aerospace chief [claims][4] Iranian missile “hit rate” has doubled. Iran [launches][5] multiple missile waves at Israel, Iraq, and Kuwait. Iran [claims][6] regional attacks are “false flag” operations meant to frame Tehran. Goldman Sachs [warns][7] Gulf economies could contract sharply; U.S. Energy Secretary says war “will definitely come to an end in the next few weeks.” * *Israel [launches][8] ground operation in Lebanon. Israeli strikes [hit][9] multiple sites across Lebanon. Israeli strikes across Lebanon kill [dozens][10] and hit medical and UN sites. Israeli strike [kills][11] eight police officers in central Gaza. Israeli forces [kill][12] family of four in Tammun in northern West Bank. Limited opening of Rafah [following][13] Israeli closure. * *Senate set for weeks-long debate and vote on SAVE America Act starting Tuesday. Illinois primaries on Tuesday. FCC Chair [threatens][14] to revoke broadcast licenses over Iran war coverage. Afghan U.S. ally [dies][15] hours after ICE arrest in Texas. ICE [released][16] Haitian asylum seeker alone in Pittsburgh; she was found dead days later. Immigration judge [orders][17] release of Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia on bond for third time. * *“Private Mossad” [caught][18] spying on center-left Slovenia government. Bobi Wine [says][19] he fled Uganda after disputed election. Somalia [says][20] 22 Al-Shabaab fighters killed in joint operations. Pakistan [launches][21] strikes inside Afghanistan overnight. EU [renews][22] sanctions on Russia as attacks hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Rwanda [warns][23] it may withdraw troops from Mozambique mission without EU funding. North Korea conducts new missile tests. Ambush in Nigeria’s Plateau state kills security personnel. [Reports][24] of protests turning violent in Cuba after announcement of U.S. talks.* **This is Drop Site Daily, our free daily news recap. **We send it Monday through Friday. [Subscribe now][25] Israeli army soldiers gather on the border with Lebanon in the Upper Galilee, northern Israel on March 16, 2026. Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP via Getty Images. # War on Iran * **Iran hit with “wide-scale wave of strikes” as the war enters its third week:** * The Israeli military announced it had begun a “wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure” in the cities of Tehran, Shiraz, and Tabriz. * Several civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on an electricity department building east Tehran, according to the Fars news agency. * At least five people were killed and seven injured after strikes on Markazi province. * U.S.-Israeli airstrikes hit the Shahid Khomeini Boys’ School in the city of Khomein at dawn. No casualties were reported, according to the Mehr news agency, though many houses in the area were damaged. * **U.S. and Israeli airstrikes continued to pound Iran over the weekend:** * Six people were killed and seven others [injured][26] after a projectile strike hit a rural home in Khizab village near Khomein in Iran’s central Markazi Province on Saturday, according to Iranian media reports citing a provincial security official. * A [strike][27] on a residential house in Ivan, a city in Ilam province near Iran’s border with Iraq, killed six members of the same family on Saturday, including a six-month-old infant, according to provincial officials cited by Iran’s Fars News. The explosion destroyed the home and was reportedly heard across the city. * At least 15 people were [killed][28] after a strike hit a factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Saturday, according to the Fars News Agency. The victims were reportedly factory workers producing heaters and refrigerators who were inside the facility when it was struck. * Massive explosions were reported early Saturday at the Iranian Space Research Center in western Tehran, a civilian government facility involved in satellite development and space technology research. Iranian media [said][29] the site was among several locations hit in the capital as Israel continued strikes on military and research infrastructure, with video circulating online showing smoke rising from the complex, followed by large blasts. The center is part of Iran’s civilian space program, though Israel and the United States have accused Iran of using the facility for the development of rocket and satellite technologies. * **Casualty count: **At least 1,444 people have been killed and 18,551 injured in US-Israeli attacks on Iran since the war began on February 28, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. The attacks have killed 223 women and 202 children, 41 of whom were under the age of two, the ministry reported Sunday. * **U.S. airstrikes hit oil-production hub: **U.S. airstrikes [hit][30] Kharg Island on Friday, multiple reports say. Witnesses to the attack described at least 15 explosions targeting the island’s air defense systems, the Joushan naval base, the airport control tower, and a helicopter hangar used by Iran’s offshore oil company. Iran claims that its oil export infrastructure was not damaged, a claim later [buttressed][31] by satellite imagery published by The Washington Post. President Donald Trump said the strikes “obliterated” all military targets on the island, including its air defenses, though Iranian reports say those systems resumed activity hours later. * **Iran says Kharg and Abu Musa strikes launched from UAE: **Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi [alleged][32] on Saturday that attacks on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, and Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf were carried out using HIMARS rockets fired from the United Arab Emirates. Araghchi said the launches came from two locations in the UAE—one in Ras Al Khaimah and another near Dubai—adding that Iran “will certainly retaliate” while attempting to avoid attacks on populated areas. * **More Marines and warships being sent to the Middle East:** Some 2,500 Marines on as many as three warships are heading to the Middle East from the Indo-Pacific region, [according][33] to The New York Times. The Marines will join more than 50,000 American troops in the region. It is unclear how the new deployment would be used. * **Trump warns allies against refusing to send ships to Strait of Hormuz:** President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he has “demanded” that about seven countries heavily reliant on Middle East oil join a coalition to police the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked by Iran. “I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their own territory,” Trump said. “It would be nice to have other countries police that with us, and we’ll help. We’ll work with them.” On Saturday, he listed China, France, the UK, Japan, and South Korea as countries he hoped would send ships. A German government spokesperson said NATO would not participate. “As long ⁠as this war continues, there will be no participation, ⁠not even in ⁠any effort ⁠to keep the Strait of Hormuz open by military ‌means,” the spokesperson [said][34]. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a press conference at Downing Street that the UK would not be drawn into a wider war. Greece also said it would not engage in any military operation in the Strait of Hormuz. The price for Brent crude oil has increased more than 40% since the start of the war. * **Araghchi says Strait of Hormuz only closed to “enemies”: **Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a press conference in Tehran on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz is only closed to the U.S., Israel, and their allies. “They are asking other countries to come and help them so that the strait remains open. From our perspective, the strait is open, but it is closed to our enemies, closed to those who carried out this cowardly aggression against us and to their allies,” Araghchi said.** **Iran [allowed][35] two Indian-flagged LPG carriers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, according to Indian media reports. * **Dubai airport suspends all flights:** All flights were temporarily suspended at Dubai International Airport after a drone struck a fuel tank and sparked a fire, Emirati authorities said on Sunday. Dubai airport has since resumed reduced flight operations. * **Fire at UAE’s Fujairah oil facility after drone attack:** A fire broke out on Monday after a drone attack on an industrial oil facility in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. The Fujairah Oil Industry Zone hosts the largest commercial storage capacity for refined products in the Middle East. The fire comes two days after oil-loading operations were [suspended][36] at the facility after debris from an intercepted drone sparked a fire near the port on Saturday. * **Drones strike Ahmed Al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait: **Several “hostile drones” [targeted][37] Ahmed Al-Jaber Air Base in southern Kuwait on Saturday, causing material damage near the installation and minor injuries to three Kuwaiti armed forces personnel, Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said. The base, operated by the Kuwaiti Air Force near the Saudi border, also hosts U.S. Air Force aircraft—including A-10 attack planes, MQ-9 drones, and other support aircraft used in operations under U.S. Central Command. * **Missile hits helipad inside U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad: **A missile [struck][38] a helipad inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Friday, Iraqi security officials told the Associated Press, after smoke was seen rising from within the embassy perimeter. After the attack, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad told American citizens in Iraq to leave the country immediately. * **Iranian missile strike damages U.S. refueling aircraft at Saudi base: **Five U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft were [damaged][39] while parked at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The aircraft were not destroyed but sustained damage and are currently undergoing repairs. No fatalities were reported in the strike. * **IRGC aerospace chief claims Iranian missile “hit rate” has doubled: **Major General Seyed Majid Moosavi, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, [said][40] on Saturday that Iranian missile strikes on U.S. and Israeli targets have become more effective. “In the past 48 hours, the rate at which Iranian missiles strike American and Zionist targets has doubled,” Moosavi said, adding that “the sky has opened to Iran’s giant missiles, and the punishment of the aggressor continues.” * **Iranians volunteer in support of the government: **Residents in Iran were filmed lining up to volunteer for neighborhood checkpoints after Israeli strikes targeted Basij and police posts across Tehran and other areas, reportedly killing security personnel. Fars News [shared][41] a video on Saturday that shows residents responding to calls for additional “popular forces” to help staff new checkpoints. * **Internet blackout tightens in Iran:** The internet blackout in Iran is getting worse. The group NetBlocks [reported][42] on Monday, “Over the last day a decline has been tracked in reserved telecoms network infrastructure, further reducing VPN availability.” On Sunday NetBlocks [reported][43] a collapse in connectivity on a key Iranian telecoms network that had so far remained partly online as part of the state infrastructure. * **IRGC warns U.S. companies in region to evacuate facilities: **On Saturday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that American industries operating in the region could become targets, urging the United States to evacuate its companies and advising people living near facilities in which U.S. firms hold shares to leave the area. The warning was issued alongside a graphic circulated by IRGC-affiliated news outlets, which listed American companies and office locations in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The list included major firms across the defense, technology, energy, and financial sectors, such as **Lockheed Martin**, **Boeing**, **Microsoft**, **Oracle**, **ExxonMobil**, **Citigroup**, and **Amazon Web Services** in Amman, as well as companies including **KKR**, **Boston Consulting Group**, **Bain & Company**, and **Trafigura** with offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. * **Iran launches multiple missile waves at Israel, Iraq, and Kuwait: **Iran [fired][44] at least ten successive waves of missile attacks on Israel early Sunday, with additional barrages targeting southern Israel and some strikes reportedly coordinated with Hezbollah. * Footage from Israel’s public broadcaster Kan and Haaretz showed fires and significant property damage in parts of central Israel and in Tel Aviv following the attacks, and with sirens sounding almost continuously in parts of the country. * At least six people were [injured][45] in the strikes. * Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the 52nd wave of “Operation True Promise 4” also targeted three U.S. bases with missiles and drones—Al-Harir near Erbil in northern Iraq, and Ali Al-Salem and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. * The IRGC said the strikes were retaliation for the killing of at least 15 factory workers in Isfahan, adding that missiles aimed at Tel Aviv targeted industrial sectors in Israel’s commercial hub. * **Iran claims regional attacks are “false flag” operations meant to frame Tehran: **A spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters [said][46] on Saturday that recent attacks on infrastructure in Turkey, Kuwait, and Iraq attributed to Iran are part of a deception campaign intended to drive a wedge between Tehran and neighboring states. The spokesperson claimed the United States and other hostile actors have copied Iran’s Shahed-136 drone—developing what the U.S. military calls the “LUCAS” drone—and are using it to strike illegitimate targets across the region, adding that Iran only targets U.S. and Israeli interests and publicly claims responsibility when it carries out attacks. The IRGC made a similar [claim][47] about drone attacks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, saying that the strikes in Riyadh and Sharqiya were not carried out by its military. * **Goldman Sachs warns Gulf economies could contract sharply; U.S. Energy Secretary says war “will definitely come to an end in the next few weeks”: **Goldman Sachs [estimates][48] that Qatar and Kuwait could each see their GDP contract by about 14% this year if the conflict continues through April and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for two months. The bank said the disruption would severely limit the ability of both countries to export hydrocarbons, which underpin their economies. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would likely fare better due to their capacity to reroute some oil exports away from the critical waterway, though Goldman Sachs still projects GDP declines of roughly 3% for Saudi Arabia and 5% for the UAE under that scenario. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright [projected][49] on Sunday that the crisis “will definitely come to an end in the next few weeks,” possibly even sooner, while acknowledging there are “no guarantees in wars at all.” * **EU foreign policy chief warns of food deprivation if Strait of Hormuz remains closed:** The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, called for a diplomatic effort to get oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Kallas also warned of food shortages next year as a result of fertilizer shortages if the crucial waterway remains closed. “If there is lack of fertilizers this year there’s going to be also food deprivation next year,” she said. # Lebanon * **Casualty count: **The death toll from Israel’s assault on Lebanon has risen to at least 850, including 107 children, and 32 medical workers—with 2105 wounded—since March 2, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. * **Israel launches ground operation in Lebanon:** The Israeli military launched a ground invasion of Lebanon on Monday as it continued to bombard the country. In a [statement][50], the Israeli military characterized the offensive as “limited and targeted ground operations...aimed at enhancing the forward defense area.” However, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz likened the operation to the Israeli military’s genocidal assault on Gaza and said Lebanese residents in the south would not be able to return to their homes indefinitely. “Hundreds of thousands of Shiite residents of south Lebanon who have evacuated and are evacuating from their homes will not return to the area south of the Litani [River] until the safety of the residents of the north is guaranteed,” Katz said, [according][51] to the Times of Israel. Katz says that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have told the military to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure close to the border, “just as was done against Hamas in Rafah, Beit Hanoun, and the terror tunnels in Gaza.” * **Israeli strikes hit multiple sites across Lebanon:** * **Monday: **A strike on a house in Kfar Sir killed one person on Monday. When an ambulance from the Islamic Health Organization arrived, a second strike killed two paramedics and wounded another, [according][52] to the state-run National News Agency. Additional airstrikes hit Khiam, Qantara, Sawana, Burj Qalawiya, Sultaniyeh, Shaqra and Yater.** **Civil defense teams recovered the bodies of Youssef Al-Saghir, his wife, and their two children from beneath the rubble of a house in the town of Qantara, two days after it was struck by an air raid. * **Sunday:** A [strike][53] in Sharhabil near Saida killed one person—identified as Wissam Taha—and wounded three children, while additional Israeli drone, jet, and artillery attacks targeted areas around Nabatieh, Tyre, Zawtar Sharqieh, Al Sawaneh, Touline, Majdel Selm, and the strategic border town of Khiam. Hezbollah said it responded with multiple rocket attacks Sunday morning, targeting sites including Balmakhim airbase south of Tel Aviv, an air-defense system in Ma’alot-Tarshiha, and the coastal town of Nahariya. * **Israeli strikes across Lebanon kill dozens and hit medical and UN sites: **Israeli airstrikes and shelling [killed][54] dozens across southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday, according to Lebanese health authorities and local media. Among the dead were at least 12 medical professionals killed in a strike on a healthcare center in Burj Qalawiya, while additional strikes in Nabatieh, Al Sawaneh, Bint Jbeil, and Ghazieh killed civilians including a young girl and two boys. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also reported artillery shells landing inside a UNIFIL compound housing the Nepalese battalion in Mays al-Jabal, injuring peacekeepers. * **WHO says Israeli strikes killed 14 health workers in southern Lebanon in 24 hours: **The World Health Organization [said][55] on Saturday that Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon have killed 14 health workers over the past 24 hours, including 12 doctors, nurses, and paramedics killed in an attack on the Burj Qalawiya primary healthcare center near Bint Jbeil and two paramedics killed earlier at a health facility in the border town of Al Sawaneh. The WHO said it has verified 27 Israeli attacks on healthcare sites in Lebanon since March 2, leaving at least 30 health workers dead and 35 injured. Israel later suggested it would continue targeting ambulances and medical facilities in Lebanon, [claiming][56] without evidence that Hezbollah uses ambulances “for military purposes. # The Gaza Genocide, Israel, and the West Bank * **Casualty counts: **Over the past 24 hours, eight Palestinians were killed and 17 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,247 killed, with 171,878 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 671 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,779, while 756 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. * **Israeli strike kills eight police officers in central Gaza: **Eight Palestinian police officers were [killed][57] and 14 people injured after Israeli aircraft struck a police vehicle on Salah al-Din Street near the entrance to Al-Zawayda in Gaza’s Central Governorate on Sunday, according to Gaza’s Interior Ministry. The dead include Colonel Iyad Abu Yusuf, director of the Central Governorate Intervention Police, along with seven other officers. In a separate strike in the Al-Sawarha area of Nuseirat refugee camp, three members of the Ayash family were killed. The incidents bring the reported death toll across Gaza on Sunday to at least 11 people. * **Israeli strikes and gunfire kill at least six Palestinians in Gaza: **Israeli strikes and gunfire [killed][58] at least six Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including two children, according to reports from Felesteen Today and the Associated Press. Among the dead were Ahmed Mohammad Al-Maghribi, killed in an Israeli artillery strike on a police checkpoint in Khan Younis, and three civilians shot by Israeli aircraft in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, including two 17-year-olds. Another Palestinian, Mutasim Maher Fares, was shot and killed by Israeli forces east of Deir al-Balah. * **Gaza dust storm:** Gaza Civil Defense officials [urged][59] residents to remain indoors, in homes, shelters, or tents, as a dust storm swept across the enclave on Saturday, warning people to go outside only if necessary, particularly those with respiratory illnesses. Authorities advised anyone who must leave to cover their noses with a mask or a damp cloth and protect their eyes from dust. Displaced families were told to secure tents and tarpaulins—especially in coastal areas where strong winds could tear them away. * **Israeli forces kill family of four in Tammun in northern West Bank: **Israeli forces [opened][60] fire on a car carrying the Bani Odeh family in the town of Tammun in the northern occupied West Bank, killing Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, 37, his wife Waad, 35, and their two sons, Mohammad, 5, and Othman, 7 on Sunday. Two other children in the vehicle—Mustafa and his brother Khaled—survived the shooting but were wounded. One of the surviving boys said soldiers pulled him from the vehicle and beat him, saying they shouted “We killed dogs.” The Israeli military said its troops were operating in the area during an arrest raid and that the incident is under review. * **Palestinian man killed in settler attack in Qusra village: **Israeli settlers killed Palestinian Amir Odeh during an attack on the village of Qusra on Saturday, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on Saturday evening, according to witnesses. Islam Odeh, who was shot in both legs during the attack, said settlers surrounded Amir and his father, shot Amir, then beat him with sticks and knives before shooting him again. * **Limited opening of Rafah following Israeli closure: **The Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt will [reopen][61] Wednesday, March 18, for “limited movement” of people only, in both directions, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced. The crossing will operate under the same mechanism used before its closure, with travel coordinated with Egypt and subject to prior Israeli security approval and EU supervision. Following U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran, Israel reinforced a total siege of Gaza and closed the Rafah crossing—allowing only the partial operation of Kerem Shalom and the entry of about 200 trucks daily instead of the 600 required under the ceasefire agreement. # United States *By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at [Julian@dropsitenews.com][62].* * **Senate set for weeks-long debate and vote on SAVE America Act starting Tuesday:** Several GOP senators, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), have attempted to lobby Senate Majority Leader John Thune to set a “talking filibuster,” essentially requiring Democratic senators to speak for hours on the floor to delay a vote on the controversial bill designed to suppress already disenfranchised voters, namely women and lower income Americans. Others, like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), have advocated for doing away with the filibuster altogether and dropping the 60-vote threshold required to pass the legislation in the Senate to a simple 51-vote majority. Republican Sens. Thom Tillis from North Carolina and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska have both expressed opposition to any suspension of the filibuster as well as with the text of the bill itself. Thune and his advisers told NBC News that they expect weeks of debate on this legislation, but it appears to be dead on arrival. * **Bipartisan housing bill moves to the House: **Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tim Scott’s (R-SC) 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed the Senate by a vote of 89-10 on Thursday in a rare show of bipartisan support for a bill that seeks to constrain private equity’s power in the single-family housing market and build more affordable units. The bill will now head for a vote in the House of Representatives, where a similar bill passed earlier this year. * **Congress to introduce yet another Iran War Powers Resolution: **Democrats in Congress are set to coalesce around another War Powers resolution this week and force a vote to constrain the Trump administration’s all-out assault on Iran. According to Aída Chávez, human rights and peace groups have been mounting a pressure campaign on Democratic lawmakers to bring Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s watered-down WPR back up for a vote weeks later. This particular resolution would force the administration to end its war by March 30, due to a provision outlined in the bill written by Gottheimer and other hawkishly pro-Israel lawmakers that says the conflict must not last longer than 30 days. Eight Democrats—Greg Landsman, Henry Cuellar, Jared Golden, Jimmy Panetta, Tom Suozzi, Vicente Gonzales, Adam Gray, and Jim Costa—are cosponsoring this resolution. It remains to be seen whether pro-war Democrats, four of whom voted with Republicans in the House to kill the initial War Powers resolution, would vote against their own bill if reintroduced as a vehicle to end, not prolong, the war. * **Illinois primaries on Tuesday: **AIPAC has outdone itself in spending that was intended to be secret in the upcoming Illinois primaries, funneling money through a series of pop-up Super PACs with anodyne names like “Elect Chicago Women” and “Affordable Chicago Now” and, when those were outed, “Chicago Progressive Partnership.” AIPAC is backing **Laura Fine** in IL-09, and initially spent heavily against **Daniel Biss**, but is now also targeting democratic socialist **Kat Abughazaleh**. Its latest innovation has been to cynically spend money on a leftist candidate polling in the single digits in an effort to draw votes away from Abughazaleh. In IL-02, AIPAC is behind** Donna Miller** and is backing **Melissa Bean** in IL08 and Chicago City Treasurer **Melissa Conyears-Ervin** in IL07. [Crypto and AI are also spending heavily ][63]in the races. * **Illinois Senate race a test for crypto**: The crypto Super PAC Fairshake is trying to be a rare open Senate seat, spending heavily to back Rep. **Raja Krishnamoorthi **against Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who has the support of popular Gov. J.B. Pritzker. * **Tlaib endorses Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois House race: **Rep. **Rashida Tlaib** (D-Mich.) has officially [endorsed][64] Kat Abughazaleh for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, joining Rep. **Ro Khanna** (D-Calif.) in supporting the progressive candidate against Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and AIPAC-backed state senator Laura Fine. Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Palestinian American and former journalist for Media Matters, is running for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. **Jan Schakowsky.** Tlaib said she decided to endorse after AIPAC began cynically [boosting][65] a longshot, left-wing candidate in an attempt to draw votes away from Abughazaleh and Biss. * **FCC Chair threatens to revoke broadcast licenses over Iran war coverage:** The chair of the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr [threatened][66] to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the war on Iran: “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.” Trump later said in a social media post he was “thrilled” with Carr’s statement. * **Afghan U.S. ally dies hours after ICE arrest in Texas: **Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal, a 41-year-old Afghan special forces veteran, [died][67] Saturday roughly a day after being arrested by federal immigration agents near Dallas, according to his family. Paktyawal, who fought alongside U.S. troops and was evacuated to the United States after the fall of Kabul, had a pending asylum case. He was preparing to take his children to school when agents detained him Friday and he later told relatives from ICE custody that he was feeling ill before being admitted to Parkland Hospital late that night and dying around noon the following day. The case marks at least the 12th death in ICE custody this year. * **ICE released Haitian asylum seeker alone in Pittsburgh; she was found dead days later: **Daphy Michel, a 31-year-old Haitian asylum seeker whose misdemeanor charges were dismissed on February 26, was transferred from Washington County Jail to ICE custody, fitted with an ankle monitor, and released in Pittsburgh the next day without notice to her brother or legal representatives. Five days later, on March 2, she was found unresponsive at a South Side bus shelter and later pronounced dead. The full report on what has been described as a “profound failure” by immigration authorities is available from Migrant Insider [here][68]. * **Immigration judge orders release of Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia on bond for third time: **An immigration judge [ordered][69] the release of Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia on bond for a third time, after the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly kept her detained through appeals and automatic procedural stays. Kordia has been held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas since March 13, 2025, when she was taken into custody during a routine immigration check-in in New Jersey. Her lawyers and supporters, including Amnesty International, say she has suffered deteriorating health and inhumane conditions in detention, including a seizure that led to her hospitalization on February 6. * **Democrats debate middle-class tax cuts: **A policy debate among Democrats ahead of the 2028 presidential cycle is centered on competing proposals from Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Cory Booker to expand the standard deduction and cut taxes for middle-class households while raising rates on high earners. Booker’s plan would exempt up to $75,000 in income for married couples and expand the Child Tax Credit, while Van Hollen’s proposal exempts the first $46,000 of income and adds surtaxes on million-dollar earnings. The measures have inspired a debate within the party about whether or not the correct approach is to imitate Republican tax-slashing rhetoric, or to challenge it, given the immense importance of taxes to funding social services. More in the last from David Dayen and Ryan Cooper at The American Prospect, [here][70]. * **Beef workers strike in Colorado:** About 3,800 workers at one of the country’s largest beef processors went on strike Monday in Greeley, Colo. The plant, owned by Brazil’s JBS, accounts for roughly 5% of U.S. beef capacity, the Wall Street Journal [reported][71]. The strike puts more pressure on U.S. beef prices, which are up 15% from last year. # Other International News * **“Private Mossad” caught spying on center-left Slovenia government: **Black Cube, a notorious spy firm with links to the Israeli government, has been spying on Slovenian government officials and allies in the months leading up to a crucial election,[ according to a new report.][72] The center-left coalition is trailing the right wing in the polls ahead of elections scheduled for March 22, but the new revelations upend the campaign and threaten to further complicate increasingly strained relations between Israel and the European Union. This morning, [the Slovenian prime minister ][73]held a press conference in relation to the report by Mladina, a storied Eastern European magazine that found Black Cube officials had met right-wing opposition leader Janez Janša before secretly recorded videos of government figures began appearing anonymously online. Black Cube became infamous for working on behalf of Harvey Weinstein to surveil journalists and dig up dirt on accusers of the convicted rapist. * **Baghdad–KRG dispute threatens restart of northern Iraq oil exports: **Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government are at [odds][74] over restarting exports through the Kirkuk–Ceyhan pipeline to Turkey as the U.S.–Israel war on Iran disrupts the country’s energy trade. With tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz effectively halted, exports from southern terminals around Basra have stopped, cutting national output to roughly 1.3–1.4 million barrels per day—a third of the pre-war level. Baghdad has proposed sending up to 300,000 barrels per day through the northern pipeline along with about 200,000 barrels from Kurdish fields, but the KRG has refused to resume shipments. Kurdish officials accuse Baghdad of imposing an “economic blockade” that restricts access to U.S. dollars through a new customs system and say repeated drone and missile attacks by pro-Iranian groups have disrupted energy infrastructure, leaving the dormant Kirkuk–Ceyhan route as Iraq’s only realistic option for restoring exports. * **Bobi Wine says he fled Uganda after disputed election: **Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, said he [fled][75] the country on Sunday after going into hiding following January’s presidential election, claiming security forces threatened his life. In a video message, Wine said the military invaded his home a day after President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner with 71.65% of the vote, an outcome Wine rejected as fraudulent after finishing second with 24.72%. Wine said he will meet “friends and allies” abroad before returning to Uganda to continue campaigning for democratic reforms. * **Somalia says 22 Al-Shabaab fighters killed in joint operations: **Somali forces [killed][76] at least 22 Al-Shabaab militants in two operations in central Somalia carried out with support from the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia and other international partners, according to the National Intelligence and Security Agency. Fifteen fighters were killed in Dumaye in the Mudug region in a strike targeting senior commanders, while a second operation in the Hiran region hit two houses used by the group, killing seven militants, including operatives accused of financing attacks. The raids were part of Operation Rolling Thunder, a broader campaign aimed at dismantling Al-Shabaab strongholds and disrupting its operational routes. The offensive follows the recent recapture of the towns of Daarusalaam, Mubarak, and Hawadley as Somali authorities seek to roll back the group’s 16-year insurgency. * **Pakistan launches strikes inside Afghanistan overnight: **Pakistan [said][77] its forces carried out strikes inside Afghanistan on Sunday, targeting what it described as Taliban-linked military installations and “terrorist hideouts” in southern Kandahar province. State-run Pakistan Television said the operation destroyed technical support infrastructure, an equipment storage site, and a tunnel housing equipment used by the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban group Islamabad calls “Fitna al-Khawarij.” Residents reported hearing explosions and seeing jets over Kandahar, while Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the strikes instead damaged a drug rehabilitation center and other civilian structures. The exchange marks the sharpest escalation yet in the current conflict. Nearly 100 people have been reported killed on both sides and about 115,000 displaced, according to United Nations estimates, since late February. * **EU renews sanctions on Russia as attacks hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure: **The European Union [renewed][78] sanctions on Sunday against 2,600 individuals and entities linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine, overcoming opposition from Hungary and Slovakia to extend travel bans and asset freezes until September 15. EU Council President António Costa criticized the United States for easing sanctions on Russian oil exports, warning the move could increase Moscow’s resources to continue the war. Russian missile and drone attacks targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, killing six people in the Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia regions and injuring others in Russia’s latest wave of strikes. * **Rwanda warns it may withdraw troops from Mozambique mission without EU funding: **Rwanda [warned][79] it could withdraw its troops from Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province if sufficient international funding for the deployment is not secured. Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the sustainability of the mission depends on “adequate, predictable funding,” after reports that European Union support for the operation is set to expire in May. Rwandan forces were deployed in 2021 at Mozambique’s request and have helped stabilize parts of the gas-rich region that had been overrun by an Islamist-linked insurgency. * **North Korea conducts new missile tests:** North Korea fired more than ten ballistic missiles in tests conducted Saturday, according to a statement by the South Korean military, amid rising tensions on the peninsula. The reported launches originate from an area near Pyongyang and traveling toward waters off the country’s east coast. Japan’s coast guard also detected a suspected ballistic missile that landed in the sea, reportedly outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. The tests coincided with a recent decision by the U.S. to relocate an advanced THAAD anti-missile system from South Korea to help assist in the war with Iran. * **Ambush in Nigeria’s Plateau state kills security personnel: **Gunmen ambushed security forces on patrol in several communities in Nigeria’s Plateau state, killing an unspecified number of personnel, according to the state government. A local group, the Kanam Development Association, said the attack near the communities of Wanka, Kyaram, and Gyambau killed around 20 people, including two senior military officers and eight local security operatives. * **Reports of protests turning violent in Cuba after announcement of U.S. talks: **Peaceful protests turned violent in at least one location, [reports from Cuba indicate][80], with a regional Communist Party office reportedly targeted. The flare-up appears isolated so far but comes shortly after President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced official talks with the United States. The timing has raised questions about whether the unrest is linked to domestic political tensions or reactions to the prospect of renewed engagement with Washington. Deputy Prime Minister of Cuba Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga [said][81] the country will allow Cubans abroad to invest and own business on the island. Former Mexican President López Obrador issued a public call to support Cuba as the country faces a hardened U.S. blockade. **Programming note:** [You can sign up here to get updates from us][82] on our WhatsApp channel. > If you want to continue getting this newsletter, you don’t have to do anything. But if this is too much—we do try to be mindful of your inbox—you can unsubscribe from this newsletter while continuing to get the rest of our reporting. 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15,000 targets struck in Iran, Hegseth says; Lebanon is near a “breaking point”; U.S. temporarily lifts Russian oil sanctions *U.S. and Israeli airstrikes pound Iran for the fourteenth day as death toll rises to 1,444. Trump [issues][1] another threat against Iran. Hegseth says over 15,000 targets hit in Iran, while Iranian Red Crescent [reports][2] strikes on over 21,700 civilian sites. Mojtaba Khamenei [vows][3] to keep Hormuz closed; Brent crude [tops][4] 100. Six U.S. crew members [die][5] after refueler crashes in Iraq. IRGC [says][6] it struck U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. U.S. temporarily [lifts][7] sanctions on Russian oil already at sea. Lebanon death toll rises to 687 amid Israeli assault. Israel’s defense minister admits attacking Lebanese infrastructure. Lebanon [nearing][8] “breaking point” with over 816,000 displaced. IDF [drops][9] indictment against soldiers accused of sexually abusing Palestinian detainee. Israel deepens restrictions on aid entering Gaza. Attack on synagogue in Michigan; suspect [lost][10] several family members in Israeli strike on Lebanon. AIPAC spends over $15M on four Illinois House races. China [mediates][11] to ease Pakistan–Afghanistan fighting. Sudanese army drone strike [kills][12] four civilians at border market. Russia [says][13] Ukrainian drone strike killed eight medics in Donetsk. Cuba [confirms][14] “sensitive dialogue” with U.S..* **NEW from Drop Site: **Behind the Bombs, New Details Emerge on Iran’s Infiltration of Israel. [Read the latest][15] by Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain. **This is Drop Site Daily, our free daily news recap. **We send it Monday through Friday. [Subscribe now][16] Smoke rises after an explosion during the World Quds Day march as participants carry Iranian flags and banners in Tehran, Iran, on March 13, 2026. Photo by Iranian President's Press Office/Handout via Getty Images. # War on Iran * **U.S. and Israeli airstrikes pound Iran for the fourteenth day: **A series of heavy airstrikes hit areas in and around Tehran on Friday, and blasts were heard in several neighborhoods, including Poonak, Marzdaran, Shahr Rey, Lavasan, Zafaranieh, and Tehran Pars. One strike hit near a large rally in the capital where thousands gathered for the annual Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) demonstration, a state-organized rally in support of Palestinians. The rally took place despite the Israeli military issuing an earlier warning on its Farsi-language X account for people to evacuate the area. The airstrike hit the area of Ferdowsi Square, just down the street from the heart of the rally. Iran’s state-owned Press TV reported that shrapnel killed one person. Top government officials attended the demonstration, including Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, who heads the country’s judiciary. * **Casualty count: **At least 1,444 people have been killed and 18,551 injured in US-Israeli attacks on Iran since the war began on February 28, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. * **Trump issues another threat against Iran: **President Donald Trump said in a statement on [Truth Social][17] overnight that: “Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time - Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.” * **Hegseth: Over 15,000 targets hit in Iran:** War Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed in a press conference on Friday that over 15,000 targets have been struck in Iran, equating to more than 1,000 a day since the day began. Despite senior Iranian officials being filmed at the demonstration in Tehran on Friday, Hegseth said Iran’s leadership is, “Desperate and hiding, they’ve gone underground, cowering – that’s what rats do.” Hegseth also claimed that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “wounded and likely disfigured.” A senior Iranian official confirmed to Drop Site that Khamenei was injured in the initial strikes of the war, but declined to comment on the extent of his injuries. * **Iranian Red Crescent says over 21,700 civilian sites hit during war: **The head of the Iranian Red Crescent [said][18] more than 21,720 civilian sites have been targeted during attacks on the country by the U.S. and Israel, including 17,353 residential units, 4,122 commercial properties, and 160 medical centers. The organization also said 69 schools and 16 Red Crescent branches were struck, and that 21 rescue vehicles and 19 ambulances were targeted. According to the group, one Red Crescent worker was killed and seven were injured. Across the broader medical sector, 12 healthcare workers have been killed and 78 have been wounded. * **Khamenei vows to keep Hormuz closed and promises revenge:** In his first address to the country on Thursday, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei [vowed][19] to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and promised “revenge” against the United States and Israel, saying in a statement read by a state TV presenter the “leverage of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must certainly continue to be used.” The 56-year-old cleric, chosen Sunday by the Assembly of Experts after the killing of his father at the start of the war, has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. * **Brent crude tops $100 as Hormuz disruption continues: **Brent crude [closed][20] above $100 for the first time since July 2022 as the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil, remains largely closed. At least 16 vessels have been attacked in and near the Strait of Hormuz since February 28, according to the New York Times, with two of the most recent attacks targeting Iraqi tankers, causing the country to suspend operations at its oil export terminals on its southern ports. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Thursday that the U.S. military is currently “not ready” to escort oil tankers through the corridor, though officials say a U.S.-led multinational naval coalition could begin planned escorts later this month or in early April. * **Drone strike hits tourist camp on Iran’s Qeshm Island, killing three civilians:** A U.S.-Israeli drone strike [hit][21] a tourist camp on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, killing three and injuring another, according to the island’s police commander. The island was also struck five days earlier when U.S.-Israeli forces hit a desalination plant, an attack authorities said disrupted water supplies to roughly 30 villages. * **Israel targets Basij checkpoints in Tehran:** Israel [said][22] its air force struck Basij militia checkpoints and officers across Tehran after claiming the units were setting up roadblocks around the capital, vowing to continue attacks aimed at damaging “the Iranian regime’s core systems and foundations.” The Basij is a volunteer paramilitary force that operates under the IRGC. Iranian state media reported that at least ten Basij officers were killed in drone strikes over the past day. * **Six U.S. crew members die after refueler crashes in Iraq: **All six crew members aboard a KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq have been confirmed dead, [according][23] to U.S. Central Command. CENTCOM said the accident occurred in airspace controlled by friendly forces. CENTCOM added that the crash “was not caused by enemy or friendly fire,” though further details have not yet been released. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attack. * **Drone attacks hit Iraqi army positions near Makhmour, killing a French soldier**: A drone attack struck Iraqi army positions in the Makhmour district of Nineveh province, which Iraqi authorities [said][24] involved four drones. French President Emmanuel Macron later announced that a French soldier stationed at the joint Peshmerga-French base was killed in the attack, marking the first French fatality since the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. At least six other French soldiers were wounded in the strike. * **Two killed in Oman: **Two people were killed in Oman on Friday after the downing of a drone in Sohar province, according to Oman’s state news agency. * **IRGC says it struck U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain**: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [said][25] its navy launched two waves of missile and drone strikes early Friday targeting the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet at Mina Salman port in Manama, Bahrain. The IRGC claimed the attack struck anti-drone systems, drone storage depots, fuel tanks, support equipment, and areas where U.S. personnel were gathered, using one-way attack drones along with cruise and ballistic missiles. The statement added that “by God’s grace, the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed.” * **Debris from aerial interception sparks fire in Dubai industrial district: **Authorities [said][26] Friday that a fire broke out in an industrial district of Dubai after debris fell following what officials described as a successful aerial interception. The falling fragments damaged the exterior of a building in central Dubai and sent heavy smoke over parts of the skyline. Officials said no injuries were reported. * **IRGC claims missile and drone strike damaged USS Abraham Lincoln, while U.S. says it fired on a vessel that got “too close”**: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [claimed][27] early Friday that a missile and drone attack caused significant damage to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier during operations in the region, according to a report from Anadolu. The U.S. [said it fired][28] on a vessel that approached the USS Abraham Lincoln “earlier this week” and it is not clear whether the account is of the same incident. The USS Abraham Lincoln is a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier that has long supported U.S. operations in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific. * **U.S. temporarily lifts sanctions on Russian oil already at sea:** The Trump administration [announced][29] on Thursday that it will temporarily allow shipments of Russian oil already at sea to reach global buyers as part of its efforts to stabilize surging energy prices. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the exemption, in place until April 11, could release roughly 130 million barrels into the market and help curb the soaring prices of Brent crude. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday criticized the U.S. decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil. “Six members of the G7 expressed a very clear view that this is not the right signal to send,” Merz said. # Lebanon * **Casualty count: **The death toll from Israel’s assault on Lebanon has risen to at least 687, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The number of paramedics killed has risen to 18, with 45 wounded, since March 2. * **Israeli strikes hit multiple sites across Lebanon:** * At least eight people were killed and nine wounded in an Israeli attack on a residential building in Saida, southern Lebanon, on Friday, according to the state-run National News Agency. * At least two people were also killed in a strike on the town of Qalila in southern Lebanon, with at least two others still missing under the rubble. * On Thursday evening, Israeli strikes [hit][30] at least four locations across Beirut, including Saint-Therese in the southern suburbs, Zoqaq al-Blat in central Beirut, Bachoura near Downtown Beirut, and the Faculty of Sciences at the Lebanese University in Hadath. * An Israeli drone strike on the campus killed faculty director Hussein Bazzi and professor Mortada Srour as they stood in the courtyard, in what officials say is the first direct strike on a university during the current escalation. The Israeli military [admitted][31] it conducted the strike and claimed without evidence that Srour was a Hezbollah operative. * **Eight members of a single family killed in Israeli strike:** Eight members of a single family from Tyre were [killed][32] in a recent Israeli strike, according to local reporting cited by Sahat news. The father, who returned after the attack, said the blast left multiple family members dismembered, including his five-year-old daughter, whose body he said had been torn apart. * **Israel’s defense minister admits attacking Lebanese infrastructure:** An Israeli strike on Friday targeted a bridge over the Litani River, a major crossing point between northern and southern Lebanon. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said afterwards, “This is just the beginning.” He added, “The Lebanese government, which misled and failed to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah, will pay an increasing price through strikes on Lebanese national infrastructure.” * **Lebanon nearing displacement “breaking point”: **Lebanon is approaching “a breaking point,” as displacement accelerates, with one in every seven people uprooted from their homes, [according][33] to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). At least 816,000 people have been displaced since March 2, according to official figures. Israel’s evacuation orders have now engulfed 1,470 square kilometres, or 14 percent of Lebanon. “The scale of destruction and displacement is increasing with every passing hour,” Maureen Philippon, NRC Country Director in Lebanon, said in a statement. “This indiscriminate bombing must stop.” * **Missile strike in northern Israel: **Nearly 30 people were [injured][34] in the Israeli village of Zarzir after Hezbollah said it fired a rocket salvo at northern Israel near the Lebanon border. # The Gaza Genocide, Israel and the West Bank * **IDF drops indictment against soldiers accused of sexually abusing Palestinian detainee:** Israel’s Military Advocate General Itay Offir has [canceled][35] the indictment against five Israeli soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman military detention facility, citing evidentiary and procedural problems, according to The Jerusalem Post. The soldiers were accused of sodomizing the detainee with a sharp object, and medical reports found fractured ribs, chest trauma, and a perforated rectum requiring surgery. Video of the assault was leaked by the former military advocate, who was later forced to resign. Defense Minister Israel Katz welcomed Thursday’s decision, calling the case a “blood libel against IDF soldiers” and saying the military legal system should protect troops “who engage heroically in war.” * **Israel deepens restrictions on aid entering Gaza:** Israel is exploiting the war with Iran to deepen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, with aid deliveries falling to 30% of required levels and transfers of critically ill patients out of the enclave halted, according to Ultra Palestine. Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, told Ultra Palestine that the Rafah crossing remains fully closed, while Kerem Shalom is operating only partially, allowing about 200 trucks daily instead of the 600 required under the humanitarian protocol. The UN said food distributions had been cut in half due to aid disruptions, while hospitals face growing generator failures due to shortages of spare parts and oil, and that 23,000 suspected infection cases linked to insect infestations were recorded last month. # United States *By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at [Julian@dropsitenews.com][36].* * **Attack on synagogue in Michigan: **Ayman Ghazali, the man who rammed a truck loaded with explosives into a Michigan synagogue yesterday, lost several members of his family in an Israeli air strike on the town of Mashgara in Lebanon, Ryan Grim [reports][37]. Ghazali was killed after driving through the doors of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, law enforcement sources told news outlets. No injuries or deaths were reported as a result of the attack, according to officials from the synagogue. A source close to the family told Drop Site that Ghazali posted photos of his brothers, niece, and nephew on WhatsApp the night before the attack. * **ROTC instructor killed in shooting at Old Dominion University investigated as terrorism:** An Army Lieutenant Colonel and ROTC instructor, Brandon A. Shah, was [killed][38], and two other U.S. Army personnel were wounded in an attack at Old Dominion University in Virginia on Thursday, which authorities are now investigating as a potential act of terrorism. The suspected gunman, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a 36-year-old former Army National Guard member previously convicted on terrorism-related charges, was also killed after the attack in an ROTC classroom shortly before 11 a.m., according to federal officials. Investigators said Jalloh had previously pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State and had been released from prison in 2024. * **AIPAC spends over $15M on four Illinois House races: **The race in Illinois’s Ninth Congressional District has narrowed to a contest between progressive candidates Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston, and political newcomer Kat Abughazaleh. Super PACs, however, have spent heavily on the campaign of state senator Laura Fine, who has received nearly $4 million from AIPAC-backed groups. Illinois’s Democratic primary is March 17. More on the state of the race in IL-09 is at The American Prospect [here][39]—and more on the dark money in Illinois’s House races is available [from local reporter Matthew Eadie here][40]. * **Federal prosecutor Jay Clayton holds investments tied to cases he oversees:** Jay Clayton, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and President Donald Trump’s pick for the post, holds more than $1.6 million in investments in companies that could be affected by investigations his office is handling, according to ethics disclosures reviewed by The Lever. Clayton maintains large holdings in Apollo Global Management, where he served as board chairman, as well as stakes in major banks linked to congressional probes into Jeffrey Epstein and in oil companies that could benefit from potential changes in Venezuela’s energy sector. Clayton is in charge of the investigation into Epstein and the DOJ’s case against Nicholas Maduro. The full report on Clayton’s potential conflicts of interest is available from The Lever, [here][41]. * **Colorado meatpackers: **3,800 meatpacking workers for JBS in Colorado are [set to strike ][42]on Monday, the first major labor strike in the meatpacking industry in decades. The workers’ contract expired in July; the United Food and Commercials Workers Local 7, said it had met with the company over two dozen times in an attempt to reach a new agreement. # Other International News * **China mediates to ease Pakistan-Afghanistan fighting: **China’s mediation between Afghanistan and Pakistan in their ongoing conflict has been effective, [according to Reuters][43]. While daily clashes continue along the 2,600-kilometer border, Pakistani airstrikes appear to have halted, and ground fighting has tapered as China’s special envoy shuttles between the two countries, urging a return to negotiations. Three Pakistani officials told Reuters that Chinese outreach has helped to reduce the fighting, the worst between Pakistan and Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. * **Sudanese army drone strike kills four civilians at border market: **Four people were [killed][44] when a Sudanese Armed Forces drone struck fuel reserves at the Adikong market near the Sudan-Chad frontier, triggering explosions that burned the victims to death. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that 23 injured civilians—including four women and seven children under 15—were treated at an MSF-supported hospital in Adré, Chad. MSF said the strike was the second deadly drone attack in Adikong in less than a month, warning that civilians continue to bear the brunt of Sudan’s war. Earlier Thursday, the UN reported that drone strikes in Sudan had killed more than 200 civilians since March 4. UN officials also warned the conflict is spreading into White Nile state south of Khartoum, where RSF drone attacks have struck schools, clinics, and power infrastructure.” * **Senegal passes harsh anti-LGBTQ law: **Senegal’s parliament has passed a law that would impose up to 10 years in prison for same-sex relations and criminalize the “promotion of homosexuality.” The bill passed overwhelmingly with 135 votes in favor, none against, and three abstentions, and now awaits the signature of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye. * **South Africa summons new U.S. ambassador over criticism: **South Africa’s Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola summoned newly appointed U.S. Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III after he publicly criticized the country’s policies, including its ties with Iran, affirmative action laws addressing apartheid-era inequality, and a land reform law allowing expropriation without compensation. Bozell also condemned a court ruling allowing the controversial “Kill the Boer” chant, calling it hate speech. Tensions between Washington and Pretoria remained high after the expulsion of South Africa’s ambassador from Washington and U.S. moves to exclude the country from G20 meetings. * **Somalia warns against Israeli military base in Somaliland:** Somalia’s government [warned][45] Thursday that its territory cannot be used for foreign military operations after reports that Israel is considering establishing a base in the breakaway region of Somaliland near the strategic port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Omar told Al Jazeera that only Somalia’s federal government has the authority to approve foreign military arrangements. (For background, read Drop Site’s report on how Israel’s [recognition of Somaliland][46] is sowing conflict.) * **Russia says Ukrainian drone strike killed eight medics in Donetsk: **Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that eight medics were killed and 10 people wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack earlier this week on a medical facility in the Donetsk region, which is largely controlled by Russian forces, according to [Reuters][47]. The ministry claimed the facility had never been used for military purposes. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the allegation, and Reuters said it could not independently verify the incident. * **Cuba confirms “sensitive dialogue” with U.S.:** Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel [confirmed][48] that officials from Cuba and the United States have recently held conversations aimed at resolving their longstanding differences. The announcement by Díaz-Canel is the first official confirmation from Cuba that official talks with the U.S. were happening, following weeks of rumors and comments from U.S. President Donald Trump that he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were in contact with Havana. * **French UN staffer killed in drone strike in Goma:** French UN humanitarian worker Karine Buisset, 54, was killed in a drone strike in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, along with two civilians early Wednesday morning, the UN said. The drone struck a residential building in the Himbi district, an area housing many aid workers and expatriates. Security sources cited by AFP said the strike may have been aimed at M23 figures in the neighborhood but hit the residence by mistake. Local media reports said a second drone targeting Corneille Nangaa, political coordinator of the AFC alliance aligned with M23, fell into Lake Kivu. M23 blamed the Congolese army, and the government said it would investigate. # More from Drop Site * **Ryan Grim **[asked][49] Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) whether his support for Trump’s Iran war has anything to do with his [ownership of an arms trafficking company][50]. Mills, who currently serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee (specifically as Chairman of the Oversight and Intelligence Subcommittee), co-founded PACEM Solutions International and PACEM Defense, which manufacture and distribute munitions, including high-explosive grenades. He claimed today to have divested from the companies, but later backtracked on that assertion. **Programming note:** [You can sign up here to get updates from us][51] on our WhatsApp channel. If you want to continue getting this newsletter, you don’t have to do anything. But if this is too much—we do try to be mindful of your inbox—you can unsubscribe from this newsletter while continuing to get the rest of our reporting. 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Behind the Bombs, New Details Emerge on Iran’s Infiltration of Israel *Reader support is what makes Drop Site possible. Without it, this journalism wouldn’t exist. If you’re able, [please consider making a tax-deductible donation][1] or upgrading to a paid subscription today.* [Subscribe now][2] A motorcycle drives past a lone restaurant serving pizza that is still open while people sit outside on February 28, 2026 in Tel Aviv, Israel after the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran. Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images. On Sunday, March 1, a day after launching the war on Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entreated the Iranian people to overthrow their government, pledging that the U.S. and Israel would strike thousands of sites across Iran to weaken its hold on power. “Do not sit idle, because your moment will arrive soon. The moment when you must take to the streets, come to the streets in your millions to finish the job, to overthrow the regime of terror that has embittered your lives,” Netanyahu declared. “Now is the time to unite your forces to overthrow the regime and secure your future.” That urging of Iranians to action was echoed by President Donald Trump, who told them: “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.” The joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is the culmination of a decadeslong campaign spearheaded by Netanyahu and waged by powerful forces within Israel’s intelligence, military and political machine. Trump’s canceling of the 2015 nuclear deal and the intensification of economic sanctions morphed, in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, into an open campaign of periodic military attacks against Iran, with the U.S. finally declaring openly that it wanted the government in Tehran toppled. For Israel, the widespread Iranian protests in January presented a grand opportunity. Though the peaceful demonstrations were spurred by worsening economic conditions and the collapse of the national currency—caused largely by U.S.-led sanctions—within days the dynamic shifted dramatically. Violent riots broke out, and Trump and Netanyahu issued public calls for an uprising to seize control of the country. The situation was viewed by Iranian officials as an armed insurrection backed by Israel and aimed at toppling the state. Amid peaceful protests, reports emerged of organized cells inside Iran who launched deadly attacks on Iranian police, mosques, and civilian infrastructure. The narrative of foreign involvement was endorsed by some Israeli commentators, as well as former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who claimed that Mossad agents were on the ground helping to organize the uprising. The riots were crushed with intense brutality by Iranian authorities. But the violence provided a prime opportunity for Netanyahu to press his case for war, wrapped in a veneer of freeing the Iranian people and eliminating a terrorist theocracy intent on building and using a nuclear bomb. As the war nears the end of its second week, Trump has sidelined his talk of Iranian liberation. He routinely dismisses the idea that the son of the deposed Shah could take over, has said he is open to a religious leader ruling Iran, and declared that he prefers to have Iran’s head of state come from within the current system—a leader Trump said should be “internal and eternal.” Netanyahu, however, is continuing to emphasize Israel’s goal of shattering the Iranian state as it exists after the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “The Ayatollah is no more, and I know you don’t want him replaced with another tyrant. So you must act,” Netanyahu wrote in a [post on X][3] addressed to the “People of Iran” on March 10. “In the coming days we will create the conditions for you to grasp your destiny. Your dreams will become a reality. When the time is right, and that time is fast approaching, we will pass the torch to you. Be ready to seize the moment!” Israel has long waged a shadow war inside Iran, employing a mixture of covert operations, assassinations, coercion, and psychological messaging aimed at engineering the government’s collapse. The Israeli campaign to infiltrate and undermine Iranian society has included recruiting individual Iranians to carry out influence operations as well as large-scale psychological operations [involving][4] anti-government Persian-language media networks. This is well established. Far less is known about Iran’s secret operations inside Israel, and its ongoing clandestine battles with Israeli intelligence. Drop Site News has obtained internal Iranian intelligence briefing summaries, photos, and other materials related to secret influence operations targeting Israeli citizens. Iranian intelligence has carried out a series of small-scale active measures for the past three years in an attempt to foment social division inside Israel and build relationships with individual Israeli citizens. Drop Site also spoke to two Iranian officials, one of them an intelligence operative who worked directly on the program, and granted them anonymity to discuss the operations because they are not officially authorized to confirm or deny the program’s existence. “A shadow war has been underway for years between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other,” one of the Iranian officials told Drop Site. “Regarding operations of this nature, no responsibility has ever been officially claimed nor is it likely to be,” he added. “No country openly speaks about them.” Over the past two years, roughly three dozen Israeli citizens have been arrested on charges of carrying out espionage and influence operations inside Israel on behalf of the Iranian government. The charges have mostly involved surveillance and vandalism—though some have risen to the level of attempted violence against selected targets. In 2025, Israel witnessed a 400% increase in suspected and confirmed cases of Israelis performing espionage related activities for Iranian intelligence, according to a report by the Dor Moriah Analytical Center, an Israeli think tank. The Israeli government has made a concerted effort to control information during the current war and requires that all reports pertaining to national security be reviewed by a military censor. It has also begun suppressing footage of Iranian ballistic missile strikes in the country—footage of which was widely disseminated during the 2025 conflict and impacted public opinion at home and abroad about the course of the war. The intelligence materials, which represent the first internal Iranian confirmation of such covert operations within Israel, show handlers inside the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) recruiting individuals living in Israel to share political messages in public places—including banners and placards containing domestic political messages and stylized insignia from the Islamic Republic. The contacts span from the outbreak of judicial reform protests in Israel in 2023 through the genocide in the Gaza Strip. The degree to which Israel and Iran have utilized their clandestine networks to aid their current war aims is unknown. An unnamed senior Israeli official [told][5] the Wall Street Journal on March 12 that Israel is receiving targeting assistance from “ordinary Iranians”—via Israeli social media accounts—that has been used in strikes against Iranian security forces. Likewise, the Iranian intelligence official told Drop Site, “some of the targets being struck within [Israel] are dynamic targets that have been identified in recent days. These targets are collected by MOIS through its local contacts.” The official declined to offer any specifics. An Iranian man walks under a display featuring a logo of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in the historic city of Isfahan, Iran, on February 20, 2025. Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images. ## **Iran’s Covert Efforts** The officials who spoke to Drop Site described Iran’s activities as a parallel campaign to Israel’s—what one of the officials termed a “reciprocal measure” to exert influence inside Israel by seeking to enlist ordinary Israelis in disruption operations. But relative to the size, scope, and lethality of Israel’s operations—and its proven ability to accentuate unrest or conduct assassinations inside Iran—the actions described by the Iranian officials are modest. “Foreign actors linked to Israeli intelligence services had, over time, established contact—through various social media platforms and under diverse cover identities—with a significant number of Iranian citizens, particularly young people,” said the Iranian official who shared the materials. “These contacts encouraged and incentivized the performance of specific tasks through a combination of financial and non-financial rewards, as well as the provision of material support, including small arms and other equipment.” Among the materials shown to Drop Site are social media groups established by MOIS agents, intelligence reports detailing the cultivation of Israeli assets, operational summaries of the activities of Israelis recruited by Iranian spies and scores of photographs of propaganda posters, leaflets, T-shirts and other materials the assets distributed on behalf of Iran. The materials date back to mid-2023 and extend through early 2026. The officials said that the Iranian influence campaign began as retaliatory actions amid the outbreak of protests in Iran in 2022 following the death of a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini in police custody. According to witnesses, she was arrested for not wearing a head cover and severely beaten. Iranian authorities claimed she died [because of an underlying condition][6]. Hundreds of people died when security forces sought to crush the demonstrations, along with dozens of members of the police and Basij militia. Iranian intelligence operatives internally concluded that some of the violence was being encouraged and facilitated by Israeli operatives, according to the sources. “Foreign actors linked to Israeli intelligence services had, over time, established contact—through various social media platforms and under diverse cover identities—with a significant number of Iranian citizens, particularly young people,” the Iranian intelligence official alleged. These Israeli handlers, he said, “encouraged and incentivized the performance of specific tasks through a combination of financial and non-financial rewards, as well as the provision of material support, including small arms and other equipment.” Iranian intelligence agents, according to the two officials, studied the tactics of the alleged Israeli-orchestrated influence efforts and embarked on an operation to expand their targeting of Israeli citizens for recruitment. In June 2023, Haaretz [reported][7] on the existence of an astroturfed campaign inside Israel related to judicial reform protests under the tagline “No Voice.” The report described the display of banners that authorities suspected were created by Iran. At the time, the Shin Bet told Haaretz that it had “recently identified Iranian influence activity on social media in Israel, whose purpose is to exacerbate the social and political rifts in Israel over the entire political spectrum.” The internal materials provided to Drop Site include evidence of Iran’s role in the “No Voice” campaign, as well as video and photographic documentation of other limited activities by the MOIS inside Israel—including display of seditious messages in public spaces for broadcast on social media, and photographing of public sites. In some cases, activist groups created and promoted on Facebook succeeded in drawing small numbers of people for public demonstrations that were later filmed. Photos of these materials were later sent back as evidence to handlers in Iran. The materials do not provide information on specific Israelis involved in the operations and obscured the identities of participants. *Image of anti-Netanyahu protest materials in Israel reportedly created by Iranian intelligence including QR code for a social media page created by MOIS. Obtained by Drop Site.* After Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza, the Iranian intelligence officers said they sought to infiltrate Israeli demonstrations calling on the government to make a deal with Hamas and secure the return of Israeli captives held in Gaza. In some images and videos of protests provided to Drop Site, individuals whose faces have been obscured can be seen holding up signs in Hebrew while others depict banners displayed in public areas—including draped on apartment balconies—with messages expressing support for Israeli captives, or criticism of the Netanyahu government. While such banners have been common in Israel during protests, Iranian intelligence created custom designs for their assets to mass produce and distribute that included discretely embedded signatures visible in the materials showing the logo of the MOIS, or stylized depictions of former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the U.S. at Baghdad airport in a drone strike ordered by Trump in January 2020. Other photographs show images of individuals at protest rallies in Israel wearing T-shirts with the same images and holding them up for the camera. In one video of a protest outside a Tel Aviv police station, a group of demonstrators can be seen chanting and displaying Israeli flags while being filmed from above with a drone whose footage Iranian intelligence claims was later provided to them by a source inside Israel. Following videotaped instances of police brutality against protestors in Israel, the Iranian intelligence operative claimed that Tehran’s Israeli assets were instructed to promote videos that identified specific Israeli police officers on Hebrew-language social media channels in order to create “a shame campaign” against the officers and increase public criticism of the police. The broader effort employed social media pages and personas in an effort “to ensure that the protests would continue in a sustained manner.” While the Iranian officials provided documentary evidence of their involvement in some small protests, organically organized political demonstrations are not unusual in Israel. *Banners created by MOIS and displayed on public buildings in Israel. The bottom left corner displays stylized signatures or images of Qassem Soleimani and the bottom right corner a QR code for a social media page created by the MOIS. Photos of some signs were later posted on Israeli social media and shared in news reports. Obtained by Drop Site.* In some cases, the Iranian officials claimed, Israelis enlisted in these operations believed they were being paid by Jewish Americans concerned about the fate of the captives in Gaza or angered by the Netanyahu government’s policies. The payments, they said, were made in cryptocurrency, though they declined to give specific amounts paid. “The missions assigned via WhatsApp from the other side gradually took on a different tone and flavor,” the Iranian intelligence official alleged. He said the “missions” would begin as printing leaflets or stickers and then moved to helping to “organize a rally in front of [Israeli President Isaac] Herzog’s house and protest Netanyahu’s war crimes as well as his indifference to the fate of Israeli captives in Gaza.” ## **From Surveillance to Violent Attacks** Although the materials shared with Drop Site point to mostly small-scale activities in comparison to Israel’s demonstrated ability to recruit individuals inside Iran to carry out [complex, violent attacks][8], the wider phenomenon of Iranian infiltration inside Israel has evolved into a notable issue within Israel. One recent case in which an Israeli was charged with carrying out surveillance on behalf of Iran (though not directly referenced in the Iranian materials shared with Drop Site) involves an Israeli citizen named Yosef Ein Eli, 23. Eli was arrested last September, accused of providing handlers based in Iran with information and photographs from hotels and tourist sites in southern Israel, for which he was provided the equivalent of roughly $3,000 in cryptocurrency. The operations were intended to be a step up the escalatory ladder, Israeli authorities claim. Eli had allegedly been cooperating with Iran since late 2024 and had been assigned further tasks by his handlers—including arson attacks, surveillance of political figures, and providing identifying information about IDF soldiers. Since 2024, Israel has handed down nearly three dozen indictments of Israelis accused of espionage-related activities for Iran, though only one person has been sentenced. Israeli officials have been pressuring prosecutors to move these cases toward convictions and sentencing, in part to serve as a deterrent. “There needs to be harsher and faster punishment,” a security official told [Israel’s YNet][9] in January. “If people saw that defendants immediately received 10-year sentences, that alone would deter others.” Prosecutions in Israel dealing with national security are covered by a state censor and only cases “cleared for publication” are permitted to be disclosed to the public, leading to ambiguity about the scale and detail of the allegations involved in many cases. But the incidents have become serious and widespread enough that Israeli officials [launched][10] a national advertising campaign last year to urge citizens against spying for Iran, with messages warning members of the public, “For 5,000 shekels is it worth ruining your life/family?” “In the past, Iranian intelligence was believed to work exclusively with marginal elements of society,” according to the Dor Moriah Analytics Center report. “Now, those arrested include mainstream Israelis—active-duty military personnel, students at religious seminaries, and even ideologically motivated citizens acting not just for money but out of conviction. Notably, it was Jewish citizens, rather than the Arab minority, who made up the bulk of Iran’s agent network.” The report also highlighted several individuals from economically marginalized sectors of Jewish Israeli society and the Druze community who have been accused of conducting espionage for Iran, including surveillance activities on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for payment. There are even cases of individuals acting out of ideological hostility to Zionism, including an American-Israeli dual citizen from the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidic sect who allegedly conducted surveillance and provided Iran with intelligence on former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Israeli reservists have also been arrested, accused by authorities of transmitting photos of the Iron Dome missile defense system to Iran in exchange for small cash payments. In one case, a military base used by the IDF’s Golani Brigades was reportedly [surveilled by a group of Israeli agents][11] working for Iran before being struck by a Hezbollah drone in an attack that killed four soldiers. The same network—all Jewish immigrants to Israel from Azerbaijan—allegedly carried out hundreds of missions over two years, including surveillance of the Nevatim and Ramat David airbases. In another case, an Israeli man who had allegedly conducted several missions for Iran was also accused of trying to assassinate an Israeli scientist for a promised payment of $100,000. He was apprehended by the Shin Bet in October 2024 while attempting to retrieve a handgun intended for the murder from a “dead drop” location. ## **“Everyone is free to guess”** There are clear hints that the clandestine war between Israel and Iran has continued during the current war—including dissemination of rumors targeted at rival populations online and via media channels influenced by both Tel Aviv and Tehran, as well as threats of future uprisings and infiltration by Israel inside Iran. The Iranian government blames Israel for helping incite disorder and violence inside Iran via its own covert operations, including widespread violence during nationwide demonstrations in January that killed thousands of people. International human rights organizations have characterized the death toll as more than double the official Iranian claims of 3,100 dead and charged that the vast majority of deaths occurred at the hands of Iranian forces attacking largely peaceful demonstrators. Iran has characterized the violence as the product of an Israeli-led terror campaign aimed at sparking an uprising. “Go out into the streets together. The time has come. We are with you. Not just from a distance or through words. We are also with you on the ground,” read a post on a Farsi language site widely believed to be linked to Mossad. It was subsequently deleted and some Israeli security analysts argued that boasting of Israeli involvement could undermine the efforts to destabilize the Iranian government. “Foreign actors are arming the protesters in Iran with live firearms, which is the reason for the hundreds of regime personnel killed,” wrote Tamir Morag, the diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s Channel 14, during the uprising. “Everyone is free to guess who is behind it.” Morag and his network are well known for their close ties to Netanyahu. “There is already an operation. There is currently a very significant U.S. influence operation,” said Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman, former chief of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, in an interview with Israeli radio on January 13. On February 24, four days before the U.S. attack on Iran began, the CIA issued a Farsi-language [public communication][12] asking Iranians to make contact with them to provide intelligence and other cooperation via encrypted channels. “Hello. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) can hear your voice and wants to help you,” the post on X read. It included a video explaining how to use software to send messages to the Agency. In the face of mounting instability, global economic shock, and continuing Iranian missile and drone strikes, Trump has increasingly hinted that he wants the war to wrap up soon. Israeli and U.S. media are reporting that internal intelligence assessments indicate it is unlikely the Iranian government will be brought down by force alone. “You can lead someone to water; you cannot make him drink,” Netanyahu said on March 12, in his first press conference since the war began. He boasted that the military attacks of the past two weeks had weakened Iran with “crushing blows,” but added, “ultimately, a regime is ousted from within.” When the bombs do stop falling, the battle will shift back to the shadow war. When asked why Iranian officials were willing to discuss details of their clandestine efforts in Israel with Drop Site, one of the officials said that, in light of recent Israeli involvement in protests inside Iran, it “is a deliberate reminder that [we] too possess the capability to manipulate citizens on the Israeli side and carry out reciprocal actions.” Iranian intelligence, he claimed, is “indeed proceeding with precisely such operations against them.” [Leave a comment][13] [Share][14] [1]: https://givebutter.com/dsn-substack [2]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe? [3]: https://x.com/IsraeliPM/status/2031452019861459240 [4]: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/2025-07-07/ty-ar… [5]: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/us-israel-iran-war-2026/… [6]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/7/iranian-coroner-… [7]: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/202… [8]: https://www.propublica.org/article/israel-iran-war-mossad… [9]: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/b1q8karv11g? [10]: https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/national-a… [11]: https://www.israelhayom.co.il/news/defense/article/16645061 [12]: https://x.com/CIA/status/2026315891055436079 [13]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-ministry-of-intellige… [14]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-ministry-of-intellige… https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-ministry-of-intellige…

UN says 3.2 million displaced in Iran; 40+ senators press Hegseth over Iran school bombing; Drone strikes in Sudan kill dozens of civilians *U.S. and Israeli airstrikes pound Iran for thirteenth day. UN: 3.2 million [displaced][1] in Iran. Satellite imagery [shows][2] new strike damage at Iran’s Taleghan-2 site. U.S. intelligence [says][3] Iran’s leadership remains stable. Iran [says][4] drones struck Israeli intelligence and missile-defense sites. Iranian officials [say][5] ports operating normally. Citibank [closes][6] branches in the UAE. Strike on Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces in Anbar [kills][7] at least 31. Drone strike [hits][8] fuel storage tanks at Oman’s Salalah port. Bahrain [hit][9] once again, and foreign riot police deployed to put down domestic unrest. Iran [denies][10] FBI claim of potential drone attack from Mexican territory. Iran [outlines][11] conditions it says are needed to end the war, as President Donald Trump [claims][12] war will end soon. Israeli strikes across Lebanon [kill][13] dozens. Israel [issues][14] sweeping displacement order to residents south of Zahrani River. Hezbollah [launches][15] major rocket barrage toward northern Israel. Israel [strikes][16] Gaza City. Spain permanently [withdraws][17] ambassador to Israel. U.S. to [release][18] 172 million barrels from strategic reserve. Dozens of senators [sign][19] letter to War Secretary Pete Hegseth calling for answers on deadly Iran school bombing. First week of Iran war cost U.S. over $11B. U.S. to permanently [close][20] consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan. Two drone strikes on [school][21] and [funeral convoy][22] in Sudan kill at least 57. Drone strike in rebel-held Goma [kills][23] UNICEF aid worker and two civilians. Russia weighs 10% budget [cuts][24] as oil revenues fall despite Iran war price spike.* **NEW from Drop Site: **Rescue Efforts in Tehran After a Triple Strike Hit Apartment Buildings, Killing 40, Mahmoud Aslan [reports][25] from Tehran. **NEW [POLL][26]** from Drop Site/Zeteo/D4P finds many Americans believe the Iran War is linked to Epstein scandal and expect political fallout. Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman from Paterson, New Jersey, has spent nearly a year in ICE detention in Texas after speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza, despite an immigration judge twice ruling that she is eligible for release. Drop Site joins the IMEU Policy Project, MPower Action, Jewish Voice for Peace ACT, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action in calling for her immediate release. **The link below allows users to send emails and make calls to their member of Congress on Leqaa’s behalf:** [CALL FOR LEQAA KORDIA'S RELEASE][27] **This is Drop Site Daily, our free daily news recap. **We send it Monday through Friday. [Subscribe now][28] Iranians collect belongings from a damaged residential building in Tehran following U.S-Israeli airstrikes, on March 12, 2026. Photo by AFP via Getty Images. # War on Iran * **U.S. and Israeli airstrikes pound Iran for thirteenth day: **Multiple airstrikes hit Tehran on Thursday—the thirteenth day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The Israeli military said Thursday that it carried out a “wave of extensive strikes” targeting Iranian government infrastructure. * **UN: 3.2 million displaced in Iran: **The UN refugee agency UNHCR [said][29] on Thursday that up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced by the war. “This figure is likely to continue rising as hostilities persist, marking a worrying escalation in humanitarian needs,” UNHCR said in a statement. It added most have fled from Tehran and other major cities toward the north of the country or rural areas. * **Satellite imagery shows new strike damage at Iran’s Taleghan-2 site: **New satellite images [appear][30] to show serious damage done to the layer of earth covering the roof of the Taleghan-2 facility inside Iran’s Parchin military complex—a site linked to explosives and missile research. The facility was previously destroyed in an airstrike in 2024 and later rebuilt with reinforced concrete and soil, but the latest imagery suggests the hardened structure has been struck again. In a statement, the Israeli military acknowledged it hit the facility. * **U.S. intelligence says Iran’s leadership remains stable: **U.S. intelligence assessments indicate Iran’s leadership remains largely intact and that its government is not at risk of collapse, despite nearly two weeks of U.S. and Israeli strikes, according to [Reuters][31]. A “multitude” of reports from intelligence agencies have furnished “consistent analysis that the regime is not in danger” of collapse, and that the government “retains control of the Iranian public.” The assessments also cast doubt on the ability of Iranian Kurdish militias to mount a sustained insurgency against the state. * **Iran says drones struck Israeli intelligence and missile-defense sites: **Iranian drones targeted several Israeli military and intelligence facilities Wednesday, including the Aman military intelligence directorate, the Unit 8200 signals intelligence unit, the Green Pine missile-defense radar, and the submarine headquarters at the Haifa naval base, according to a [statement][32] from Iran’s military. Iranian officials said the strikes began early in the morning and lasted several hours. * **Iran says ports operating normally: **Iranian shipping officials [said][33] on Wednesday that ports across the country remain fully operational and cargo traffic is continuing normally despite disruptions to regional shipping around the Strait of Hormuz. Masoud Polmeh, secretary general of the Iranian Shipping and Related Services Association, said vessels are loading and unloading goods, including bulk cargo, containers, and staple commodities, without restrictions. Tanker-tracking data from Kpler cited by the Wall Street Journal shows Iranian crude exports averaging about 2.1 million barrels per day over the past six days, with much of the oil bound for China and India aboard older “shadow fleet” tankers operating under sanctions or false flags. * **Citibank closes branches in the UAE: **Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters [warned][34] people across the Gulf to avoid being within one kilometer of banks linked to the United States or Israel, saying such institutions could become targets after one of the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran hit a Bank Sepah building. Iranian media reported bank employees were killed in the attack, which officials said hit a facility on Haqqani Highway where staff were working an emergency shift. Following the warning, Citigroup evacuated staff from its Dubai offices and employees at other firms in the Dubai International Financial Centre were also told to leave amid heightened security concerns. Citibank later announced it would be [closing][35] all but one of its branches in the UAE. * **Russia evacuates additional workers from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant: **Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom [said][36] Wednesday that 150 additional Russian employees have left Iran from the Bushehr nuclear power plant, exiting through Iran’s border with Armenia. Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev said about 450 Russian personnel remain at the facility, where Russia had been building two additional reactor units before construction was halted last week because of the war. Bushehr, Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant, has not been attacked, though Likhachev said the situation around the site remains “tense.” * **Strike on Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces sites in Anbar kills at least 31: **At least 31 people were [killed][37] in strikes targeting sites belonging to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) near the Akashat area of Anbar province, according to the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate. The attacks reportedly hit facilities of the PMF’s 19th Brigade, including a medical headquarters and battalion base, with aircraft allegedly returning to strike a medical center and ambulances as rescuers attempted to reach the wounded. The PMF, an umbrella force of militias formally integrated into Iraq’s armed forces, has been targeted in a series of recent U.S.-Israeli strikes. * **More attacks in Iraq: **Drone attacks were [reported][38] late Wednesday in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. An intercepted drone fell near the Divan Hotel at the Saad Abdullah Conference Hall complex in Erbil. Also on Wednesday, two foreign tankers carrying Iraqi fuel oil were [attacked][39] inside Iraqi territorial waters, according to the Associated Press. Both vessels caught fire, though Iraqi authorities were able to successfully evacuate all 25 crew members from the two vessels. As of late Wednesday, fires remain ablaze on both ships. * **Drone strike hits fuel storage tanks at Oman’s Salalah port: **Several drones [struck][40] fuel storage tanks at the port of Salalah in southern Oman, causing a large fire but no reported disruption to oil supplies or damage to merchant vessels, according to Omani state media and maritime security firm Ambrey. Iran denied any role in the attack, which a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters [called][41] “highly suspicious.” Salalah is one of Oman’s main commercial and energy hubs on the Arabian Sea coast. * **Bahrain hit once again, and foreign riot police deployed to put down domestic unrest:** Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior reported on Wednesday that an Iranian attack [hit][42] fuel tanks at a facility in the Muharraq Governorate, where Bahrain International Airport is located. Due to the persistent threat, Bahrain’s Civil Aviation Affairs said it relocated several Gulf Air aircraft and cargo planes to alternative airports, including sites in Saudi Arabia, to ensure “continuity of operations.” Bahrain has also [brought][43] in anti-riot forces from Jordan, it was reported on Wednesday, as domestic unrest grows over the kingdom’s role in hosting U.S. forces used in the war with Iran. The move marks the first time since the 2011 Arab Spring that Bahrain has deployed foreign troops to help contain domestic unrest. * **Iranian drones strike Dubai skyscraper: **Iranian drones [struck][44] Dubai overnight, hitting a skyscraper in the Creek Harbor development and sparking a fire that civil defense crews later contained, with no casualties reported. The strike followed the interception of two drones near Dubai International Airport a day earlier that injured four people. * **Iranian drones strike Kuwait airport and power infrastructure: **Iranian drones [struck][45] infrastructure in Kuwait on Wednesday, hitting Kuwait International Airport and damaging facilities but causing no reported injuries, according to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority. Shrapnel from interception attempts also struck six power transmission lines, briefly causing limited outages nationwide, the Ministry of Electricity said. * **U.N. Security Council condemns Iranian attacks on Gulf states in new resolution:** The U.N. Security Council [adopted][46] a resolution Wednesday condemning Iran’s attacks on Gulf Cooperation Council states and Jordan, with 13 votes in favor, and Russia and China abstaining. The resolution, presented by Bahrain and co-sponsored by 135 countries, said the strikes violate international law and threaten international peace and security, and condemned Iranian attacks on civilian infrastructure. The measure did not reference the ongoing U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that have killed more than 1,300 civilians. * **Iran denies FBI claim of potential drone attack from Mexican territory: **Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, [rejected][47] reports that Iran could launch drone attacks from Mexican territory, telling Drop Site News the allegation was “totally false.” The denial followed an ABC News report that the FBI warned California police Iran had “allegedly aspired” to launch a surprise drone attack from a vessel off the U.S. West Coast if the United States struck Iran. * **Iran outlines conditions it says are needed to end the war: **Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian [said][48] ending the war would require recognition of Iran’s “legitimate rights,” payment of reparations, and firm international guarantees against future aggression. He said he conveyed this position during talks with the leaders of Russia and Pakistan, framing it as Tehran’s proposed path to peace. * **Trump claims war will end soon:** President Donald Trump [told][49] Axios’ Barak Ravid during an interview on Wednesday that the war with Iran will end “soon” because there is “practically nothing left to target.” “Little this and that... Any time I want it to end, it will end,” Trump reportedly said. * **International Energy Agency says Iran war has caused largest oil supply disruption in history:** Oil prices topped $100 per barrel on Thursday before dropping back slightly. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its latest market report that the war with Iran “is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” The IEA said crude production was currently down by at least eight million barrels per day, with an additional two million related to petroleum products shut off. On Wednesday, the IEA ordered the largest release of government oil reserves in its history. * **U.S. to release 172 million barrels from strategic reserve: **The United States will [release][50] 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a coordinated 400 million-barrel emergency release organized by the International Energy Agency. The Department of Energy said shipments will begin entering distribution next week and deliveries will take about 120 days to complete. Officials say the U.S. plans to replenish the reserve with 200 million barrels over the next year. # Attacks on Lebanon * **Casualty count: **The death toll from Israel’s assault on Lebanon has risen to at least 634, including 91 children, with 1,586 wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. * **Israeli strikes across Lebanon kill dozens: **At least 64 people were [killed][51] and 142 injured in Israeli airstrikes across Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley on Wednesday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, with additional strikes Thursday morning killing at least 11 more people and wounding 32, including a “double tap” strike on Ramlet al-Baida, a major seaside tourist area of Beirut where dozens of displaced people have been sheltering in tents. * **Israel issues sweeping displacement order: **The Israeli military on Thursday [issued][52] a sweeping displacement order for all residents south of the Zahrani River, which lies even further north of the Litani River. Lebanese officials announced earlier that the number of people displaced since March 2 has risen to 816,000. * **Israel orders more forced displacement in Beirut’s southern suburbs: **The Israeli military also [issued][53] repeated orders to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs, including Haret Hreik, Ghobeiry, Laylaki, Hadath, Burj al-Barajneh, Tahwitat al-Ghadir and Chiyah in Dahieh, to immediately evacuate on Wednesday. “The IDF will not hesitate to target anyone who is near Hezbollah members, its facilities, or its combat equipment,” the statement added. Israeli airstrikes were reported about 30 minutes after the warnings were issued. * **Hezbollah launches major rocket barrage toward northern Israel: **Hezbollah [fired][54] multiple waves of rockets from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel, with Israeli media reporting around 100 rockets launched and air raid sirens sounding across Haifa, the Galilee, and the Golan Heights. Lebanon’s Al-Manar said eight successive barrages were fired, while Hezbollah later announced the start of what it called the “Operations of the Devouring Storm.” The Israeli military has been [instructed][55] to prepare for expanded operations in Lebanon following this barrage of rockets, with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz saying an escalation is aimed at restoring security to northern communities. “If the Lebanese government does not know how to control the territory and prevent Hezbollah from threatening northern communities and firing at Israel,” Katz said, “we will take the territory and do it ourselves.” # The Gaza Genocide, Israel and the West Bank * **Casualty counts: **Over the past 24 hours, one Palestinian was killed and nine were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,136 killed, with 171,839 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 651 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,741, while 756 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. * **Israel strikes Gaza City: **Israeli airstrikes [hit][56] Gaza City on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring several others. The strike hit a shopping center near Haidar Roundabout. Videos from later on Wednesday night showed airstrikes igniting tents sheltering displaced families, with fires spreading through an encampment. * **Spain permanently withdraws ambassador to Israel: **Spain has permanently [withdrawn][57] its ambassador to Israel as tensions escalate over Madrid’s opposition to the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Spain’s embassy in Tel Aviv will now be headed by a chargé d’affaires, the Foreign Ministry said. Diplomatic relations have been strained since Spain recognized a Palestinian state and imposed restrictions on weapon shipments to Israel through its ports and airspace. # United States *By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at [Julian@dropsitenews.com][58].* * **Elementary school was on U.S. target list relying on outdated targeting data:** The girls’ elementary school in Minab where at least 175 people were killed, including 168 children, in a strike in the opening hours of the war was on a U.S. target list and may have been mistaken for a military site, [according][59] to the Washington Post citing multiple people familiar with the attack. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that a preliminary Pentagon investigation into the strike found that the United States was at fault and that the incident may have been the result of using outdated targeting data. The AP also reported that the preliminary Pentagon investigation found that outdated intelligence provided to CENTCOM by the Defense Intelligence Agency likely led to the deadly strike. * **Dozens of senators sign letter to Hegseth calling for answers on deadly Iran school bombing:** Over 45 Senators—all of them Democrats or Independents—signed a [letter][60] addressed to War Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding answers about whether the U.S. was responsible for the girls’ elementary school strike and what analysis had been done of the site before it was bombed. The letter also raised concerns about Hegseth dismantling congressionally mandated offices set up to reduce civilian casualties. “Under this administration, budgetary and personnel cuts at the Department have robbed military commands of crucial resources to prevent and respond to civilian casualties, including at U.S. Central Command and the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence,” the senators wrote. * **First week of Iran war cost U.S. over $11B:** The Pentagon estimates that the first week of the war with Iran cost $11.3 billion, according to the AP, which provided the estimate to Congress in a briefing earlier this week. The U.S. military reported spending $5 billion on munitions alone in the first two days of the war. * **AIPAC backs Bean return in Illinois: **Former congresswoman Melissa Bean is attempting a political comeback in Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District, backed by millions of dollars from super PACs tied to AIPAC, pro-AI interests, and cryptocurrency groups ahead of a March 17 primary. Her main challenger is progressive candidate Junaid Ahmed, supported by Justice Democrats, who has raised far less money and is campaigning on issues like affordability and universal child care. More on the Bean-Ahmed race, which has received far less attention than the high-profile race in the nearby Ninth District, is available from our friends at The American Prospect, [here][61]. * **Poll finds many Americans believe Iran war linked to Epstein scandal and expect political fallout: **A survey of 1,272 likely voters conducted from March 6–8 by Data for Progress for Drop Site News and Zeteo found a 52–40 majority believes that President Donald Trump launched the war with Iran at least partly to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal surrounding his presidency. The poll also found 55% of voters disapprove of the war and nearly half expect it to make their lives more difficult, while respondents said they would be less likely to support candidates who back the conflict or approve additional war funding. **The poll’s full results, and an accompanying report, can be found [here][62].** # Other International News * **U.S. to permanently close consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan: **The U.S. State Department has [notified][63] Congress it will permanently close its consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, a mission near the Afghan border that served as a key logistics and diplomatic hub during and after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Officials said the move, part of a broader downsizing of federal agencies, will save about $7.5 million annually while shifting services to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. The consulate employs 18 American personnel and 89 local staff and will cost about $3 million to shut down, according to the notification obtained by the Associated Press. * **Drone strike on school and clinic in Sudan’s White Nile state kills at least 17: **At least 17 people, including nine schoolgirls as well as teachers and health workers, were [killed][64] when an explosive-laden drone struck a secondary school and nearby health center in the village of Shukairi in Sudan’s White Nile state, hospital officials and a medical monitoring group told The Associated Press. At least 10 others were wounded, including three girls with serious injuries. The Sudan Doctors Network blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, saying there was no military presence in the village. * **Drone strike on funeral convoy in Sudan kills 40:** A drone strike [hit][65] a pickup truck carrying mourners to a funeral in Sudan’s West Kordofan state on Tuesday, killing 40 people, mostly women, according to a medical source at Abu Zabad Hospital who spoke to AFP. Many of the victims were members of the same family, a local resident said. The attack came hours after another drone strike killed seven people, including three children, in the city of Dilling. * **Drone strike in rebel-held Goma kills UNICEF aid worker and two civilians: **A French aid worker with the United Nations children’s agency and two other people were killed when a drone struck a residential building in Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a city controlled by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, according to [Al Jazeera][66]. The UN confirmed the deaths and condemned the attack. M23 blamed the Congolese government for the strike, which the government has yet to comment on. * **Russian drone strike on business in Kharkiv kills two: **A Russian drone struck a civilian business in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing two people and injuring five others, local officials told [Reuters][67]. Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said the attack sparked a fire at the site, while regional authorities reported the wounded were in serious condition. The city, located about 30 kilometers from the Russian border, has been repeatedly targeted since Russia’s 2022 invasion. * **Russia weighs 10% budget cuts as oil revenues fall despite Iran war price spike: **Russia’s government is considering cutting about 10% of “non-sensitive” spending in this year’s budget as it grapples with falling energy revenues and an economic slowdown, according to sources cited by [Reuters][68]. Officials said the final decision will depend partly on whether the recent surge in oil prices triggered by the Iran war proves sustainable. Military spending on the war in Ukraine and major social obligations would likely be spared from the proposed cuts. * **Right-wing hardliner takes office in Chile:** José Antonio Kast was sworn into office pledging to lead an “emergency government” that is poised to implement a hard right shift in Chile that will further align the country with U.S. interests in the region. Kast has already moved on his promise to crack down on migration and taken steps to reduce public spending as part of his pro-market agenda. # Drop Site on the Hill * **Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)** [railed][69] against the Trump administration to Drop Site’s Julian Andreone for being beholden to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It appears as if…the United States is delivering not what is best for the United States, but whatever Netanyahu wants,” she said. * **Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.)** [acknowledged][70] to Andreone that “there are a lot of special interests involved” in Trump’s decision to go to war in Iran, but said regarding Israel’s influence over U.S. foreign policy, “I don’t think it is that prevalent.” # More from Drop Site * **Deadly strike on Tehran’s Resalat Square kills dozens as residents and rescuers search rubble: **An overnight airstrike on a residential area near Resalat Square in eastern Tehran killed at least 40 people and destroyed several apartment buildings, with most victims reported to be civilians inside their homes, according to Iranian officials and rescue workers. Neighbors and Iranian Red Crescent teams rushed to the scene, digging through rubble to rescue survivors as the wounded were transported to nearby hospitals. “The continuous noise of screaming and calling for help filled the place,” one rescue worker said. **The latest piece from Drop Site contributor Mahmoud Aslan, a collaboration with Egab, is available [here][71].** * Jeremy Scahill joined Breaking Points on Wednesday to discuss the latest developments in the war on Iran. **His full appearance is available [here][72].** **Programming note:** [You can sign up here to get updates from us][73] on our WhatsApp channel. > If you want to continue getting this newsletter, you don’t have to do anything. But if this is too much—we do try to be mindful of your inbox—you can unsubscribe from this newsletter while continuing to get the rest of our reporting. 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