Iran War, Week 2
Is it the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning? The new regime in Iran doesn’t seem to agree with President Donald’s assertions this week that the war will end "soon" because “there’s practically nothing left to target.”
Overnight Hezbollah and Iran fired at least 150 rockets into Israel, sending hundreds of thousands of Israelis to shelters starting Wednesday evening.
In reply, Israeli Defense Forces say they hit dozens of sites inside Iran tied mostly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, part of a new stage of the war aimed at “deepening the blow.”
Besides maintaining its home defense, Israel’s front against Lebanon is expanding, forcing Lebanese living south of the Litani River to evacuate and residents of Upper Galilee into shelters.
In Iraq, battles between pro-Iranian militias and opposition groups also are growing. Late on Thursday a Kurdish military base came under attack by the pro-Iran PMF, with 6 French soldiers reported wounded. Iraqi Kurdistan took hits from 40 missile and drone strikes in under 48 hours starting Wednesday, and about 270 since the war began in late February.
The International Office of Migration (IOM) is tracking “notable precautionary mobility,” or voluntary displacement, in Iraq, a country already hosting nearly 1.5 million displaced people from Syria and Iraq. This has forced airports, schools, and businesses to close and foreign workers to evacuate. I’ve talked to several families who have relocated to rural areas away from drone and missile strikes. All threaten the hard-won gains for stability in Iraq I’ve written about recently here and here.
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