Free Republic

The US campaign against Iran has continued to degrade the Islamic Republic’s military capacity, with thousands of targets struck, including missile infrastructure, air defenses, drone systems, and naval assets, alongside the use of bunker-penetrating munitions against fortified coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz. Operations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have complemented the US effort with strikes across Iran, including on missile-related sites and personnel. Strikes have also extended to economic targets, including gas processing facilities in Asaluyeh, which prompted Iranian threats of retaliation against regional and Israeli energy infrastructure. At the same time, the focus of the campaign...

Soldiers and members of the Basij militia stationed in several districts of Tehran have moved to mosques. Additionally, Iranian special forces and police moved – according to witnesses – to the mortuary in the city of Karaj, located near Tehran. Witnesses also reported that members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and border guards in the western part of Iran, neighboring Iraq and Turkey are sheltering in mosques. In such border towns as Paveh, Mariwan, Bane and Sardasht, Muslim temples were turned into outposts, among others. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that on the Turkish-Iranian border, members of...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson has been killed in overnight strikes carried out jointly by the United States and Israel, the IRGC said, the latest in a mounting toll of senior officials assassinated since the war began. Ali Mohammad Naini, a 68-year-old brigadier general who took up the IRGC spokesman role in 2024, “was martyred in the criminal cowardly terrorist attack by the American-Zionist side at dawn”, the IRGC said in a statement on Friday. His death came just hours after he appeared on national television to insist that Iran retained full capacity to manufacture missiles, even under wartime...

Signs of discontent, low morale, financial strain and desertion are spreading among parts of Iran’s security and military forces, Iran International has learned. Members of the Special Units Command received a notice on Friday saying salary payments for some units had run into problems, according to people familiar with the matter. The delay marked the third time this year that wages for those forces had been paid late. Following the delays, some personnel refused to attend pro-government gatherings, the sources said, causing disruptions in deployment in some major cities. Retirees and some army personnel have also not been paid for...

Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi said the Islamic Republic’s weakening grip on internal repression is bringing closer the moment when Iranians could once again take control of the streets. He said in an interview with Iran International aired on Monday that a final call for nationwide demonstrations to end the Islamic Republic would come once the authorities’ coercive apparatus had been sufficiently weakened. “I think all of us, after 47 years of dealing with this criminal government, are counting the days until this system finally disappears,” Pahlavi said in the interview with Morad Vaisi. “We want to reach the day after...

Around 300 Basij commanders and field officials were killed in a wave of overnight strikes on key command and operational centers of Iran’s Basij forces, Iran International has learned. Around 300 Basij commanders and field officials were killed in a wave of overnight strikes on key command and operational centers of Iran’s Basij forces, Iran International has learned. The strikes appeared to hit the logistics and command structure of a force long used to suppress dissent and confront anti-government protests. In one of the most critical attacks, a Basij support unit’s repair and maintenance center was hit. The site housed...

The IDF confirms it eliminated Esmail Ahmadi, Head of the Intelligence Division of the Basij Force, in an Israeli Air Force strike in Tehran earlier this week that also killed senior commanders, including the unit’s commander Gholamreza Soleimani. According to the IDF, Ahmadi played a central role in advancing terror activity and enforcing the regime’s control, including leading violent crackdowns during recent protests, as part of a broader series of strikes targeting senior Iranian regime figures.

The Israeli killing of Ali Larijani marks another blow to the Islamic Republic’s capacity for coordination, weakening an already fragmented system and raising the risk of miscalculation under pressure. Iran confirmed on Tuesday that Larijani—Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and one of the regime’s central security coordinators— was killed in a morning strike on Tehran. The strike inevitably recalls the killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020: another precise removal of a figure who linked diplomacy, intelligence and military power. Soleimani’s death did more than eliminate a commander. It weakened the regime’s ability to calibrate risk. Radical in purpose,...

An Israeli official, who did not want to be named, told Iran International that Israeli drones targeted Basij and police patrols that were planning to approach the venues of the Syrian [celebration] on [Wednesday night.] [The Basij were turned back.] He called this action "unprecedented" and added: "For the first time, the people of Iran received active support that paralyzed the repression apparatus and practically provided an air umbrella for the population." [The Syrian or the Chaharbansuri] is one of the ancient rituals of Iran [and has] turned from a celebration to a scene of anger and explosion and confrontation...

People out in streets doing fire festival, shouting Javid Shah, regime warned that anyone in streets will get shot, and IRGC Basij have shot people, and IDF has droned a lot of the IRGC Basij, and people celebrate boisterously regardless. Ayatollahs dropping cluster warheads on Israel, destroying and killing, but not all that much. Lots of interceptors intercepting. Live films where it's happening.

The IDF confirmed on Tuesday that the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, and through the integration of unique operational capabilities, conducted a precise strike on Monday that eliminated Ali Larijani, the Secretary of Iranian Supreme National Security Council, who operated as the de facto leader of the Iranian terror regime. The strike was conducted while he was located near Tehran. Throughout the years, Larijani was considered one of the most veteran and senior figures within the Iranian regime leadership and was a close associate of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Following the elimination of Khamenei, Larijani consolidated his...

BREAKING 5: IDF has also confirmed assassinations of Basij national leader and his deputy who wer hiding in a tent to avoid attacks on their HQs. The Basij are possibly the worst. Literally hooligans hired for 1 purpose: to beat and kill their own people.

It's way too early to determine whether or not Operation Roaring Lion's objective of bringing down the Iranian regime will be successful or not, but all those military geniuses who claim that it is impossible are stuck in a paradigm that does not apply. Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion are unlike anything we have seen in history. That doesn't mean the strategy behind them will work, of course, but it does mean that judging past performance tells you little about future success. It's clear that Israel and the United States have a brilliant, if risky, plan to not just...

Friday, Sept. 30th concluded the 3-day military manoeuvres conducted by the Basij and Revolutionary Guards in the town of Marivaan (Province of Kurdistan). These maneuvers took place around Zaribaar Lake where bunkers from the 8-year-old Iran/Iraq war still stand. For days leading up to the beginning of the maneuvers, squadron leaders and regime's authorities in Marivaan had bragged about the 20,000 strong Basiji presence in the "war games", however in spite of all the pressure to compel civil servants, high school students and the general public to participate, only 1400 people showed up. This was an indication of yet another...

In a chilling deleted post, Arshia Maghsoudi allegedly admitted to using a Dragunov rifle to "kill teenagers," claiming commanders told him to "shoot as much as you can." ...In the story, Maghsoudi wrote: "For the first time, they gave us a Dragunov. They told us think of it as a sniper game - 'shoot as much as you can'. So I went and landed a ton of headshots."

The Regime Behind the Carnage: Iran’s War on Its Own People and on Israel. Iran’s Hypothetical Atrocities and Its Proxy War Against Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a dark history of brutally suppressing its own people, with estimates suggesting that in just two weeks of crackdowns (Jan/2026), it massacred between 20,000 and 50,000 unarmed civilians. Extrapolating this rate over two years yields a staggering 1.04 million to 2.6 million potential deaths—a chilling reminder of the regime’s capacity for mass murder against innocents, far exceeding even the most tragic conflicts. This same ruthless regime fuels terrorism through its backing...

Ali Nouri Zadeh, Asharq Alawsat: Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned. The plan, which also includes the carrying out of suicide operations targeting US and British interests in the region, as well as their Arab and Muslim allies, in case Iran is attacked, was drawn up by a number of experts guerilla warfare and terrorist operations, and was revealed by a senior source in the Iranian armed...

Medics treating protesters in Iran said they were seeing a difference in the type of injuries inflicted on men and women by the security forces — with the female activists often being shot in their faces, breasts and genitals.. multiple doctors and nurses who have been surreptitiously caring for wounded demonstrators during months of unrest said it appeared that officers tasked with stopping the protests have been targeting specific body parts in women. One doctor from Isfahan province speaking to the outlet on condition of anonymity said he believed the authorities “wanted to destroy the beauty of these women.” Iran...

Iran was slapped with fresh sanctions Friday after carrying out its first execution over demonstrations that have shaken the regime for nearly three months, as activists called for fresh protests. Mohsen Shekari, 23, was hanged Thursday after being found guilty of "moharebeh", or "enmity against God", (except).. (excerpt)The judiciary said Shekari was arrested after blocking a Tehran street and striking a member of the Basij paramilitary force linked to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with a machete -- a wound that required 13 stitches

Documents obtained by Iran International show Iran was coordinating secret efforts with Qatar to control who attends the World Cup and restrict any signs of dissent. Black Reward, a hactivist group that found access to Fars News Agency files this week provided an audio tape of a meeting between a Revolutionary Guard general and a group of media managers or representatives from outfits affiliated with the IRGC about plans to use the sporting event to the benefit of the regime in Tehran. A six-minute audio segment of a tape features General Ghasem Ghoreyshi (Qasem Qoreyshi), deputy commander of the paramilitary...