IRAN launched Wave 64 of Operation True Promise at dawn yesterday, striking military and strategic targets across Israel while simultaneously hitting US naval assets in the Persian Gulf.
The operation deployed advanced ballistic missile systems, among them the Qadr, Emad, Kheibar Shekan and Khorramshahr, against Ben Gurion Airport, fuel supply lines, and military installations in Haifa and Rishon Lezion.
Iranian authorities confirmed all targets were struck in direct retaliation for Israeli and US aggression.
More than five million settlers were reported confined to shelters.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps separately intercepted Israeli-manufactured ‘Heron’ and Harop drones over Tehran and Karaj, where they had been attempting surveillance of sensitive Iranian sites.
The US Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf was also struck by mid-range missiles.
That reach extends to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has closed to US and Israeli-linked vessels, with Iranian naval forces targeting tankers that breached the ban.
Energy prices have soared across the US and Europe as a result.
Prominent American political scientist John Mearsheimer delivered a blunt assessment of Washington’s position.
‘The Strait of Hormuz is of extraordinary importance,’ he said.
‘The reality is that we have no way to keep it open.’
He cited the Trump administration’s failure to recruit European and NATO allies into an anti-Iran naval coalition as a telling admission of weakness.
‘The fact that Trump has requested help shows that the US Navy, which is the most powerful navy in the world, is not capable of keeping this strait open on its own.
‘Iran holds a very strong hand to play.’
Trump had previously threatened to escort vessels through the waterway before abandoning the idea following Iranian warnings.
The aggression, which began on 28 February with airstrikes assassinating senior Iranian officials and commanders, has stretched well beyond the short campaign Washington and Tel Aviv had anticipated.
Iranian forces have since responded with near-daily missile and drone strikes on Israeli-occupied territory and US bases across the region, on the principle of ‘eye for an eye’.
The financial cost is becoming impossible to conceal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded yesterday to reports that the Pentagon is seeking more than $200 billion in additional budget covering, among other items, replacement of depleted Tomahawk missiles, Patriot systems and THAAD interceptors.
The war’s first six days alone cost an estimated $11.3 billion, with ammunition expenditure exceeding $5.6 billion in just the first two days.
‘We’re only three weeks into this war of choice, imposed on both Iranians and Americans,’ Araghchi wrote.
‘This $200bn is the tip of the iceberg. Ordinary Americans can thank Benjamin Netanyahu and his lackeys in Congress for the trillion-dollar “Israel First tax” that is about to hit the US economy.’