“US Israel Iran War”

Good morning. President Trump has said he would bomb much of the civilian infrastructure of Iran on Tuesday night if Tehran doesn’t, among other things, allow the Strait of Hormuz to open. He has set a tight deadline of 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Trump has made numerous threats to Iran since the war began in late February. Sometimes he has followed through, and sometimes he has backed down.

Donald Trump has threatened to wipe out Iran on Tuesday if it does not agree to a ceasefire.

The US president said he could bomb the Islamic Republic back to the “Stone Ages”, destroying all of its power stations and bridges within four hours, if no deal were in place by 1am UK time.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Mr Trump told a White House press conference on Monday evening. “I hope I don’t have to do it.”

Update …

President Donald J. Trump posted to Truth Social just minutes ago, stating, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” pic.twitter.com/Z36aL7ytyL

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 7, 2026

h/t Mauser

Iranian military capabilities continue to decline as U.S. forces relentlessly strike military targets inside Iran. pic.twitter.com/EyYkisgR5B

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 6, 2026

Donald Trump has appeared to compare Keir Starmer to Neville Chamberlain in his latest disparaging remarks about the prime minister, who has refused to back the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

The comments, during an Easter Monday event at the White House, underline Trump’s continued annoyance at Starmer’s scepticism about the aims and legality of the conflict, a view that has not been shifted by the US president’s jibes.

In somewhat unclear comments, Trump told reporters that the UK had “a long way to go”, adding: “We won’t want another Neville Chamberlain, do we agree? We don’t want Neville Chamberlain.”

WE GOT HIM!’ Donald Trump’s announcement was immediate and emphatic. The operation was ‘one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History,’ he said. Two American aircrew recovered from deep inside Iran, in separate missions, without a single US casualty. That was the headline. America has not lost control of the ongoing war with Iran.

Cut through the triumphant tone of the President’s post, however, and there is truth. The Islamic Republic’s only tangible achievement in this incident was the original downing of an American aircraft. But in war, such things happen. Aircraft are tools, they fail, they are lost, they are replaced. The outcome that would have mattered, the capture of an American crew member, never materialised, and that absence outweighs everything else in this episode. America did whatever it took to ensure it stayed on top.

In the old days this would be next month’s “Movie of the Week”.

While American forces conducted an astonishing rescue of a downed Weapons Systems Officer, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) escalated the stakes against Iran’s leadership yet again, going after the men in charge of Tehran’s oppression and terror organizations.

One of this weekend’s big names is Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, now confirmed dead, who until the moment of his vaporization served as the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence organization. Khademi’s death was confirmed Monday by an IRGC statement carried by the Iranian state Fars news service.

President Trump vowed Monday to catch the “leaker” who revealed that US forces were not immediately able to rescue the second F-15 pilot shot down over Iran — as he retold of the wounded airman’s dramatic weekend rescue.

“We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” Trump said in the White House briefing room. “They basically said that we have one and there’s somebody missing. Well, [Iran] didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information.”

Iran has rejected a call to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in return for a 45-day ceasefire.

Pakistan presented Tehran and Washington with a peace proposal that would have seen an immediate pause in the conflict and a reopening of the key shipping lane.

While Iran said it was reviewing the framework of the broader agreement, an official insisted that the Strait would not be reopened.

The two-stage proposal came from Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, who were hoping the 45-day window would provide enough time for talks to reach a permanent ceasefire.

Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief, was in contact “all night long” with JD Vance, the US vice-president, Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East and Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, sources told Reuters.

(more…)

At the start of the attack on Iran in February, President Trump spoke of the “imminent threat” of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Yet on Wednesday, as he prepared to address America about his rationale for the war, he told interviewers “I don’t care” about the stockpile of highly enriched uranium Iran is known to hold, saying it was too far underground to be a concern and could easily be monitored by satellite.

“If we see them make a move, even a move for it, we will hit them with missiles very hard again,” he said later on television.

US President Donald Trump was swift to declare victory after the second crew member of an F-15 downed over Iran was recovered, claiming on Sunday that the dramatic and successful rescue in Iranian territory “proves, once again, that we have achieved overwhelming air dominance and superiority”.

Observers, however, paint a more complicated picture of what this means for the US in Iran.

While the mission was a success, the events of the last few days – in which two aircraft were downed and at least one helicopter hit by gunfire – highlight that threats to US aircraft and personnel remain even after weeks of heavy US and Israeli strikes against Iran’s military infrastructure and boasts from the president that Tehran had “no anti-aircraft equipment” left.

U.S. forces are taking out attack drones used by the Iranian regime to threaten Americans and indiscriminately target civilians in neighboring countries. pic.twitter.com/T9C2cKFK0V

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 5, 2026

So this is purest speculation on my part. But watching the incredibly complex multi-domain rescue mission this weekend, it suddenly struck me that new, powerful AI might be behind this. Moving all these units into so many places at once, making sure that they have communications organized, fuel, ammunition, food, the right troops with the right transports, and so on is enormously complex. It normally requires the work of hundreds of staffers to do this sort of thing, and that takes time. But it happened awfully fast, and nearly flawlessly.

Hundreds of SEAL Team 6 commandos, fake CIA intel and a battle for survival atop 7,000-foot ridge: Inside the historic US mission to save F-15 airman in Iran

During the rescue of the second F-15E crew member in southwestern Iran (April 3–5, 2026)… U.S. special operations forces were operating deep in hostile territory under real pressure.

The downed airman evaded capture for roughly 48 hours while Iranian forces… including IRGC… pic.twitter.com/z5h2Jt43lX

— A Gene Robinson (@AlGeneRobi96834) April 5, 2026

Like the fighter who distracts his foe with feints before bringing an uppercut that knocks out his opponent, the world has been exclusively focused on Iran shutting the Straits of Hormuz while ignoring the chilling fact that it is a regime of theocratic extremists who have launched ballistic missiles capable of hitting Europe as well as US bases in the Indian Ocean. Iran’s ruling ayatollahs want to put nuclear warheads on those missiles. That is where the real threat lies — not in a Middle East waterway — but in Iran’s missile silos and nuclear weapons program.

How henchmen brainwashed in ‘violent and extremist’ training camps oversee prison rapes and mass executions to maintain Iranian regime’s stranglehold

In countless camps deep in rural Iran, gruff military men bark orders at trembling young cadets.

Boys as young as 13 are put through their paces by uncompromising tutors, who brainwash their pupils into hating all of Iran’s enemies, planting a seed that grows into a fanatical and insular view of the world.

This is the beginning of the journey for the hardened rank and file of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a nursery where teens learn the ropes and become part of a 125,000-strong death cult.