Adam Goldman, Samuel Granados, Ronen Bergman and Eric Schmitt
A week into their war on Iran, the United States and Israel have attacked a vast array of targets – about 4000 in all – from the land, air and sea.
The bombing campaign, one of the most intense periods of strikes involving US forces in decades, reveals a broad strategy. The United States and Israel are seeking to loosen the grip of Iran’s repressive security and intelligence services and possibly topple its authoritarian government. They are also trying to eliminate Iran’s ability to produce and launch missiles, seriously degrade its navy and prevent the country from being able to produce nuclear weapons.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday (Washington time) that the conflict would continue until Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, indicating that the war may just be getting started. But so far, Iran has not folded.
The bombing has killed the country’s supreme leader and other top officials, but the Islamist government that has ruled the country since 1979 remains in place.
Although it has been weakened, Iran’s military is still firing missiles and drones at Israel and at countries in the region where US troops are deployed.
The vast Iranian security forces also appear to be intact. And while the United States and Israel have struck at least one site at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program, the extent of the damage is unclear.
Leadership
In the first minutes of the war, Israel sought to paralyse the chain of command in Iran. Israeli warplanes fired a barrage of missiles that struck the Iranian leadership compound in central Tehran.
At the time, senior Iranian national security officials had gathered in one building at the compound. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was in another building.
Among those who died in the attack last weekend was Khamenei. Israel later hunted down the highest-ranking Iranian commander responsible for operations in Lebanon, killing him in Tehran.
Trump has said that several potential successors to Khamenei are now dead and that he wants a say in the selection of Iran’s next leader. The United States and Israel are undoubtedly looking for opportunities to kill more Iranian officials they want out of the picture.
Intelligence and security
The bombing campaign has targeted the security and intelligence agencies responsible for the repression of dissent in Iran. The aim is to weaken the regime’s grip on power.
Among the targets is Iran’s most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guard, and the Basij, a plainclothes militia affiliated with the Guard. Israel said it had used dozens of warplanes in one attack to blast a compound in eastern Tehran that served as the headquarters for the Basij, the Guard and the Quds Force, the arm of the Guard responsible for foreign operations.
Israel estimates that hundreds of Basij and Guard personnel have been killed, along with thousands of other security personnel. The Pentagon said it had bombed sites linked to the Guard, which, along with its proxies, has targeted Americans in numerous attacks over the decades.
In addition, the United States and Israel have struck detention centres and television and broadcasting facilities.
Missiles and defence
Perhaps the most vital part of the US-Israeli campaign has been the effort to establish air superiority with attacks on Iranian air defences, missile depots and launchers, and air bases.
The Israeli military says that more than 300 Iranian missile launchers and about 150 air defence systems have been disabled, and that it was continuing to target the country’s ballistic missiles and launch sites.
The United States says it has crippled Iran’s navy, destroying 30 vessels, including a submarine.
The US military used a submarine to fire a torpedo and sink an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean and also struck an Iranian drone carrier ship.
The aim of the naval operations is to weaken Iran’s capacity to menace shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil exports and significant quantities of natural gas.
Nuclear program
The United States and Israel say they are determined to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.
In June, the two nations carried out attacks in Iran that Trump said had “destroyed” the country’s nuclear potential.
But US and Israeli forces have resumed striking the Iranian nuclear infrastructure, attacking the Natanz site, where Iran has produced a vast majority of its nuclear fuel.
The site is considered the heart of the country’s nuclear program. Satellite imagery shows that the new strikes destroyed the entrances to an underground cavern at Natanz that held centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
It is not clear whether Isfahan and Fordow, two other sites that were struck in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, have been targeted again.
This past week, Israel destroyed a previously secret underground facility in Minzadehei, north-east of Tehran, that it said was used to develop parts for a nuclear weapon.
Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, said Iran had “intended to pair nuclear-enriched uranium with a missile delivery system” at the compound.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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