Saturday, Apr 18th
Last update08:12:27 AM GMT
War Glance
Aero Sol’s systems are used across Israel’s defense sector, making the plant a significant node in Israel’s military drone production network.
The company produces a family of four tactical drone platforms built for reconnaissance, intelligence, and surveillance missions, and also manufactures composite components for major Israeli defense programs including parts used in F-15 and F-16 fighter jet pilot helmets.
More than 100 US-based international law experts have warned that the US-Israeli war on Iran raises “profound concern” over potential violations of international law.
In a letter published by the Just Security Forum, the signatories said the campaign may breach the UN Charter and raised concerns about possible violations of human rights and humanitarian law, including potential war crimes.
The letter pointed to growing civilian harm, environmental damage and wider regional risks.
It also criticised US officials’ focus on “lethality”, warning such rhetoric could undermine global norms protecting civilians.
Roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers are still intact and thousands of one-way attack drones remain in Iran’s arsenal despite the daily pounding by US and Israeli strikes against military targets over the past five weeks, according to recent US intelligence assessments, three sources familiar with the intel told CNN.
“They are still very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region,” one of the sources said of Iran.
The US intelligence assessment total may include launchers that are currently inaccessible, such as those buried underground by strikes but not destroyed.
Thousands of Iranian drones still exist — roughly 50% of the country’s drone capabilities — two of the sources said the intelligence indicated. The intelligence, compiled in recent days, also showed a large percentage of Iran’s coastal defense cruise missiles were intact, the sources said, consistent with the US not focusing its air campaign on coastal military assets though they have been hitting ships. Those missiles serve as a key capability allowing Iran to threaten shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
The intelligence offers a more nuanced picture of Iran’s continuing capabilities compared to sweeping assessments of military victory offered publicly by President Donald Trump and administration officials.
The U.S. is sending thousands of additional U.S. service members to the Middle East aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, even as President Trump on Wednesday claimed Iran has asked the U.S. for a ceasefire.
The George H.W. Bush deployed Tuesday en route to the Middle East along with three destroyers, a carrier strike group that consists of more than 6,000 sailors, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press.
The new deployment follows the Trump administration’s decision to send 2,500 Marines and 2,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the region last week. Officihttps://thehill.com/policy/defense/5810825-us-sends-troops-middle-east/?tbref=hpals have not disclosed what those troops would be doing.
The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, the military command that oversees troops in the Middle East, did not immediately respond to questions on the deployments from The Hill.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian released a letter addressed to “the people of the United States of America” on Wednesday, hours before President Trump is scheduled to address the nation about the U.S. military’s ongoing operations against Iran.
“Today, the world stands at a crossroads,” Pezeshkian wrote in a letter posted on the social platform X.
“Continuing along the path of confrontation is more costly and futile than ever before,” the Iranian official continued. “The choice between confrontation and engagement is both real and consequential; its outcome will shape the future for generations to come.”
The conflict has now stretched into a fifth week, after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 amid nuclear deal negotiations. The strikes have taken out several key Iranian leaders, including former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon is drawing parallels with its 1982 campaign, and could prove even worse as it becomes more protracted, European officials told Middle East Eye.
For many Lebanese, the broad scope of Israel’s military campaign in recent weeks already recalls its 18-year occupation of the south of their country, which ended after years of confrontation with Hezbollah forced Israeli troops to withdraw in 2000.
This time, Beirut has taken unprecedented steps that include opening the door to direct engagement with Israel.
"But the Israelis do not seem to care about any of this," a European official with knowledge on the matter said.
As in the past, Israeli officials have made clear they have a military plan for southern Lebanon and intend to carry it out, he added.
Tel Aviv viewed the offer as too little, too late – given Beirut’s inability to rein in Hezbollah since the end of the last war, in November 2024.
NPR has confirmed more than a dozen U.S. service members were wounded and two E-3 Sentry aircraft were damaged in an Iranian strike on an air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
President Trump has repeated the assertion that Iran wants a deal while he has also ordered thousands of U.S. troops to deploy to the Middle East and even warned the U.S. may try to seize Iran's oil and Kharg Island — or blow it up.
On Monday, Trump expanded a threat he had made if Iran refuses to open the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping passage, writing on social media the U.S. would not only destroy Iranian electric plants and oil wells but also "possibly all desalinization plants!" That would potentially raise the number of civilian infrastructure sites targeted in the region.
Iran struck a desalination plant in Kuwait overnight. And three United Nations peacekeepers were killed in Lebanon in 24 hours as Israel continues to battle the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Page 4 of 126
