Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has release a statement, accompanied by video footage, which claims to show the targeting of an American F-35A/B Lightning ll with a surface-to-air missile in the skies over Iran. This claim by the IRGC follows reports that a F-35 was damaged and forced to make an “emergency landing” at an air base in the Middle East due to hostile fire over Iran.

While taking questions earlier in the Oval Office alongside Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, President Trump was asked by a Japanese reporter why the United States did not inform allies - like Japan - prior to strikes against Iran, to which he responded:

“Well, one thing you don't want to signal too much, you know. When we go in, we went in very hard, and we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise? Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”

Only weeks ago, the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard were chasing sanctioned oil tankers affiliated with Russia and Iran across the world, intercepting, boarding, and at points seizing them for the United States. Now the Trump Administration is considering removing the sanctions levied on these same vessels, allowing them to continue making money for the regimes in Moscow and Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed during a press update earlier on the strike campaign against Iran, that Israel acted alone in carrying out yesterday’s strikes against the South Pars Gas Fields in Southern Iran, which resulted in mass retaliatory attacks by Iran against energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Netanyahu further stated that President Trump has asked Israel to hold off on future attacks against oil and gas facilities in Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admits that while there are signs “cracks” appear to be forming in the Iranian Regime, it is possible that the regime will indeed survive the ongoing Iran War.

If Netanyahu is saying this, expect that the White House will soon begin or has already begun looking for an “off ramp” in the conflict against Iran.

The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), comprised of the USS Boxer (LHD-4), USS Comstock (LSD-45), and the USS Portland (LPD-27) with the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Group (MEU), has been ordered to the Middle East after recently departing San Diego, California.

Four officials tell Newsmax the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (11th MEU) is deploying ahead of schedule from the West Coast and is expected to sail direct through the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East, after the U.S. Navy was ordered by the Pentagon to surge additional fire power to the U.S. Central Command Area-of-Responsibility near Iran.

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the near-exact location of the French aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle (R91) was publicly exposed on March 13, when a naval officer utilized the online physical exercise tracker Strava to log his run on the deck of the carrier while it sailed through the Eastern Mediterranean to the west of Cyprus.

Footage from earlier tonight shows the moment that a fragment from an intercepted ballistic missile launched by Iran nearly struck the individual filming said video on a street in Haifa, Northern Israel.

Today, the U.S. State Department released a number of congressional notifications for foreign military sales (FMS) to Gulf nations totaling $16.5 billion. The nations in question include Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. FMS to the UAE includes, Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs), F-16 munitions and upgrades, Long-Range Discrimination Radar with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Integration, Fixed Site-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System (FS-LIDS), and additional supplementary equipment. FMS to Kuwait includes Lower Tier Air and missile defense sensor radars. FMS to Jordan includes aircraft repair and ordnance support.

Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran, with senior military commanders having submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option if such a decision is made by President Trump, multiple sources briefed on the discussions told CBS News. 

Preparations include how to handle the possible detention of Iranian soldiers and paramilitary operatives, such as where Iranian prisoners-of-war would be sent, two sources said, with the U.S. Army’s Immediate Response Force (IRF) under the 82nd Airborne Division and roughly 5,000 Marines from 11th and 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit deploying to the Middle East.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a 300-for-300 prisoner swap took place between the Syrian Transitional Government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Al-Hasakah City. The swap is part of a wider deal, inked in January of this year, between the two factions that will see the SDF increasingly incorporated into the Syrian Armed Forces.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released footage earlier today showing strikes against military targets deep inside Iran.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) released imagery of Iran’s Karaj Surface-to-Surface Missile Plant, following strikes that completely destroyed the facility in Northern Iran. The U.S. continues to degrade Iran’s ballistic and cruise missile production capacity, while Iran continues to launch missiles at countries across the Middle East.