MOSCOW, March 28 – The situation at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant continues to deteriorate and attacks pose a direct threat to nuclear safety, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Saturday after another strike near the facility. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday that Iran had informed it of another strike in the vicinity of Bushehr, the third such incident in 10 days, with no damage to the operating reactor and no release of radiation reported. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday called for “unequivocal and firm condemnation” of the attack near Bushehr. “We hope that, by receiving timely and objective information directly from the Iranian authorities about what is happening on the ground, the Director General of the IAEA will be able to convey a simple message to the aggressors immediately and unequivocally: ‘It is time for you to stop!’,” its spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement. Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev also said that 163 more of its staff from Bushehr had returned to Russia after an evacuation, and that two more groups would be evacuated in the coming days.
The United States Navy is preparing to move the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier into waters near Iran, CNN reported, citing a source familiar with the decision. The vessel is reportedly expected to operate under the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). However, it remains uncertain whether the Bush will reinforce or replace one of the two carriers already active in the region.
At least 29 United States troops have been injured at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan air base over the past week, The Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing two people briefed on the matter. According to the report, at least 15 American soldiers were injured after Iran launched six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at the US air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday, with five of them being seriously injured. Additionally, 14 US troops were wounded in the two attacks on the air base that took place earlier in the week.
Meanwhile, previous reports revealed that yesterday’s attack on the air base also damaged several refueling aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East to give President Donald Trump more military options even as he weighs peace talks with Tehran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing Department of Defense officials with knowledge of the planning.
The Houthis said they had launched ballistic missiles at Israel and would continue operations until strikes on Iran and its proxy militant groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon stop. The comments on Saturday morning mark the Yemen-based militant group’s entry into the Iran war, a conflict now a month old and which has already caused chaos in energy markets and killed thousands of people.
Straits of Hormuz and Bab El-Mandeb Key for Oil Flows
Hormuz is effectively closed, while US warns about Houthi attacks near Bab El-Mandeb
Source: Bloomberg
Hours earlier, Israel said it identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward its territory. The Israeli military did not immediately say if the projectile was intercepted. “Our operations, with God’s help, will continue,” the Houthis said in a statement on Telegram, “until the aggression against all fronts of the resistance ceases.”
NN: The Hooties are the savages sponsored by Iran. Another one of their tentacles harassing international shipping, It will never end until we kill the head of this beast Iran
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Friday that it carried out strikes on a nuclear complex in Iran’s Arak. The two separate strikes previously reported by Tehran targeted a heavy water facility used in hydrogen solutions. In a post shared on X, the IDF called the Iranian nuclear “weapons” program an “existential threat to Israel and the entire world,” vowing to stop its advancement.
US is certain about having destroyed a third of Iran’s missiles, say sources
Another third is believed to be damaged, destroyed or buried
Iran is continuing attacks, may be conserving missiles
Estimates of Iran’s missile stockpile vary widely
The United States can only determine with certainty that it has destroyed about a third of Iran’s vast missile arsenal as the U.S. and Israeli war on the country nears its one-month mark, according to five people familiar with the U.S. intelligence. The status of around another third is less clear but bombings likely damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, four of the sources said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the information. One of the sources said the intelligence was similar for Iran’s drone capability, saying there was some degree of certainty about a third having been destroyed. The assessment, which has not been previously reported, shows that while most of Iran’s missiles are either destroyed or inaccessible, Tehran still has a significant missile inventory and may be able to recover some buried or damaged missiles once fighting stops.
The intelligence stands in contrast to President Donald Trump’s public remarks on Thursday that Iran had “very few rockets left”. He also appeared to acknowledge the threat from remaining Iranian missiles and drones to any future U.S. operations to safeguard the economically vital Strait of Hormuz. “The problem with the straits is this: let’s say we do a great job. We say we got 99% (of their missiles). 1% is unacceptable, because 1% is a missile going into the hull of a ship that cost a billion dollars,” Trump said at a televised Cabinet meeting on Thursday. Asked for comment, a Pentagon official said Iranian missile and drone attacks were down by about 90% since the start of the war. The U.S. military’s Central Command “has also damaged or destroyed over 66% of Iranian missile, drone, and naval production facilities and shipyards,” the official added. “If Iran is smart they’ve retained some of their capability – they’re not using everything that they have. And they’re laying in wait,” Moulton said. The Trump administration has said it aims to weaken Iran’s military by sinking its navy, destroying its missile and drone capability and ensuring that the Islamic Republic never has a nuclear weapon. Central Command has said its operation, known officially as “Epic Fury”, is on schedule or even ahead of plans laid out prior to the February 28 start of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. U.S. strikes have hit more than 10,000 Iranian military targets as of Wednesday and, according to Central Command, have sunk 92 percent of the Iranian navy’s large vessels. The U.S. military has published imagery showing attacks on the factories that produce Iran’s weaponry and has stressed that it is not just pursuing missile and drone stockpiles, but the industry that makes them.
Still, Central Command has declined to state precisely how much of Iran’s missile or drone capability has been destroyed.
One source said part of the problem is determining how many Iranian missiles were stockpiled in underground bunkers before the war started. The U.S. has not disclosed its estimate of the size of Iran’s pre-war missile stockpile.
Israeli military officials say Iran had 2,500 ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel before the war. Over 335 missile launchers have been “neutralized”, representing 70% of Iran’s launch capacity, a senior Israeli military official said.
Israeli officials have not publicly disclosed how many actual missiles they believe Iran still possesses. They privately acknowledge that eliminating what they estimate to be the last 30% of Iran’s capacity will be relatively more difficult to achieve. Despite the heavy pace of U.S. strikes, Iran has demonstrated that it has not run out of weapons.
On Thursday alone, it fired 15 ballistic missiles at the United Arab Emirates, along with 11 drones, according to the UAE’s Defense Ministry. It has also displayed new capabilities. Last week Iranian forces for the first time fired long-range missiles, targeting the U.S.-UK military base Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Nicole Grajewski, an expert on Iran’s missile forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at Paris’ Sciences Po university, said the Trump administration may have overstated how much U.S. strikes have degraded Iranian capabilities. She pointed to Iran being able to continue to carry out strikes from Bid Kaneh military facility, which has been heavily bombed. “The fact that they’ve managed to sustain this, I think, indicates the U.S. was overstating the success of its operation,” Grajewski said, adding she believed that Iran still retained about 30 percent of its missile capabilities. Grajewski said Iran had more than a dozen large underground facilities where it has been able to keep launchers and missiles, adding: “The big question is: have these facilities collapsed?” One senior U.S. official voiced skepticism about the United States’ ability to accurately assess Iran’s missile capabilities, in part because it was unclear how many were underground and accessible in some way. “I don’t know if we’ll ever have an accurate number,” the official said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged the challenge posed by Iran’s tunneling in remarks on March 19, saying: “Iran is a vast country. And just like Hamas and their tunnels (in Gaza), they’ve poured any aid, any economic development, humanitarian aid, into tunnels and rockets.”
“But we are hunting them down methodically, ruthlessly and overwhelmingly, like no other military in the world can do, and the results speak for themselves,” he said, without providing details on the percentage of missiles or drones destroyed.
Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Jonathan Landay and Erin Banco; additional reporting by Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem; Editing by Don Durfee and Gareth Jones
The United States and Israel targeted the Arak nuclear complex on Friday, Iranian state media reported.
Two separate attacks focused on the Khondab heavy water facility. Heavy water or deuterium oxide is used in nuclear research as a solvent for hydrogen. While hits caused structural damage, no deaths or injuries have been reported.
The strikes come amid the US-promised pause on Iranian energy plants as strained negotiations between Washington and Tehran continue, where Iranian nuclear enrichment remains the most important point, together with Hormuz Strait regulation.
United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told reporters in France on Friday that the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers have gathered to discuss how to resolve the issue of the Strait of Hormuz. “Iran cannot be able to just hold the global economy hostage,” she commented, further adding that the Strait must be reopened and that international shipping must be protected. Cooper went on to say that London is “deeply concerned” about the Russia-Iran ties, especially when it comes to exchanging weapons.
NN: SO how do you propose to open the straights? Blowing kisses? Soon they will figure out it will take boats guns and bloodshed. And as they shiver in their cold houses and can’t afford to fuel their cars they will belly up to the bar.