Israel Says Targeted Tehran Airport in Wave of Overnight Strikes

Smoke rises from the site of airstrikes at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on March 7, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of airstrikes at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on March 7, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says Targeted Tehran Airport in Wave of Overnight Strikes

Smoke rises from the site of airstrikes at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on March 7, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of airstrikes at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on March 7, 2026. (AFP)

Israel's military said on Saturday it had struck aircraft belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, as part of a wave of strikes overnight on the city.

"The Israeli Air Force... completed a broad wave of strikes across Tehran and on military infrastructure located at the 'Merabad Airport' in Tehran", it said in a statement.

"16 aircraft of the 'Quds Force' unit of the IRGC were precisely dismantled", it said, referring to the branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards that oversees its foreign operations.

The military accused the Guards of using Mehrabad International Airport, one of two that serve the capital, to send cash and weapons to its proxies in the Middle East, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.

"Also targeted were several Iranian fighter jets that posed a threat to Israeli Air Force aircraft operating in Iranian airspace", the statement added.

The army also said strikes overnight hit a key command center for the Iranian air force, as well as a site used to manufacture ballistic missiles.

Earlier on Saturday, Israel's military said more than 80 fighter jets completed a wave of strikes on Iranian military sites, missile launchers and other targets in Tehran and central Iran.

"Over 80 Israeli Air Force fighter jets... completed an additional wave of strikes targeting infrastructure belonging to the Iranian terror regime," the military said in a statement.

The statement said that jets hit a military academy belonging to the Revolutionary Guards which "was being used as an emergency asset".

It said the facility was being used for military operations, making it "a lawful military objective".

Other targets included an underground command center and missile storage facility as well as launch sites, "in order to reduce the scope of fire directed at the territory of the State of Israel", the statement said.

Israeli media reported that the commander of Israel's air force General Tomer Bar had personally taken part in an overnight sortie to hit Tehran.

When Israel joined the United States in a massive wave of strikes on Iran at the start of the war, the Israeli military said 200 fighter jets took part in the raids, calling it the largest in the air force's history.



US Sending 3rd Aircraft Carrier, More Troops to Mideast

Image published by CENTCOM of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during its operations in the region (CENTCOM)
Image published by CENTCOM of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during its operations in the region (CENTCOM)
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US Sending 3rd Aircraft Carrier, More Troops to Mideast

Image published by CENTCOM of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during its operations in the region (CENTCOM)
Image published by CENTCOM of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer during its operations in the region (CENTCOM)

The Pentagon is sending a third aircraft-carrier strike group and an additional Marine expeditionary unit to the Middle East, according to US officials, adding 9,000 to 10,000 more troops to the region as President Donald Trump considers renewing strikes on Iran after the midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The ships, jet fighters, Marines and sailors will arrive in the region by the end of November, the officials said. Trump recently told aides that he expects to resume bombing Iran that same month, according to the newspaper.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt left its home port of San Diego on Sunday on a scheduled deployment, while the USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, comprising three amphibious ships carrying Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, left on Monday.

Two carriers—the USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington—are already in the Middle East. If the Washington stays after the Roosevelt arrives it will bring the region to three carrier strike groups for the first time since April, before Iran and the US clinched a fragile ceasefire that temporarily ended fighting that began on Feb. 28. That ceasefire collapsed, and the two sides have fought sporadically since.

Besides the Bush and Washington, ships from the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group are also in the Middle East. The additional servicemembers on the warships that deployed this week will add to the more than 50,000 troops already in the region, one of the officials said.

It is possible that the Washington could leave the region and head back to its home port in Japan, bringing the force back down to two carriers. Spokespeople for the White House and Pentagon didn’t respond to requests for comment.


Iran Launches 30 Drone, 10 Missile Attacks Per Week on Ships in Hormuz

Ships near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, on October 2, 2026 (Reuters)
Ships near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, on October 2, 2026 (Reuters)
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Iran Launches 30 Drone, 10 Missile Attacks Per Week on Ships in Hormuz

Ships near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, on October 2, 2026 (Reuters)
Ships near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, on October 2, 2026 (Reuters)

Iran has been launching dozens of drones and missiles at commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz each week, largely out of the public eye, though it has often failed to strike its targets, confidential data shared with The New York Times by a Western security official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters shows.

Since the beginning of August, Iran has launched about 30 drone attacks and 10 anti-ship missile attacks per week against commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to the data shared with The Times by the official.

At least four commercial ships have been hit by Iran in the past 10 days, the official said.

A tally of reports by a monitoring group run by the British Navy show that since Sept. 10, at least 13 ships, most of them oil tankers, had been struck by projectiles or debris from projectiles. (Those reports may be incomplete because they are based on voluntary reports by ship crews.) While the reports do not specify who was responsible for the attacks, maritime experts say the details suggest many were Iranian.

On Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps for the first time appeared to confirm it was behind the near-daily sounds of explosions heard from Iran’s southern coast, saying it was striking targets in the Strait of Hormuz every 24 hours.

“We prevent them from passing, but for some time now, America has not responded,” a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards said in a state news interview.

The aggression shows that even as oil exports from the Middle East have rebounded in recent weeks, shipping through the waterway remains risky, as Iran jostles to keep control of one of its biggest sources of leverage.

“Negotiations aren’t going anywhere. Neither side is really budging. So it’s a standoff,” said Gregory Brew, an Iran analyst at the Eurasia Group.

He said that the violence in the strait “speaks to the position that both sides are in: Neither is looking to aggressively escalate the conflict.” But both, he said, want to control the waterway.


Trump Reportedly Expected to Name Jay Clayton as AI Czar

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
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Trump Reportedly Expected to Name Jay Clayton as AI Czar

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

US President Donald Trump is expected to name Jay Clayton as his AI czar, CNN reported on Friday, citing two sources familiar with the discussion.

Clayton is the US director of national intelligence.

Last month, Trump said he plans to appoint an artificial intelligence adviser, known as an "AI czar," and create an "AI force," though he ⁠gave no details ⁠about either initiative or how they would be implemented.

This is the second time Trump has named an adviser to oversee AI-related decisions across the administration, a position he has ⁠dubbed "AI czar." Venture capitalist David Sacks held the role at the beginning of Trump's second term, before leaving his team. Sacks still advises Trump on AI.

Trump's move comes as top AI researchers have warned that people building AI believe it could kill humans within a decade, following cases of AI ⁠agents ⁠going rogue to hack external systems. Several Democratic and Republican lawmakers have responded with alarm and calls for more action.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed concerns about AI and argued that additional regulation is unnecessary even as fears grow among lawmakers in Washington and globally about risks posed by the technology.