US Strikes Kill 30 PMF Fighters in Iraq, Iran's New Leader Issues First Statement, and More

Hey, this is Dave DeCamp from anti-war.com and welcome to anti-war news. It's about 940 on Thursday

night here in Virginia on the east coast of the United States. Tonight is my last show of the week

as long as nothing too crazy happens over the weekend. And the weekend for me is Friday,

Friday and Saturday. But let's get into the news here. We have lots and lots of stuff to get through

as usual. The first story at the top of anti-war.com today, Iran's leader,

vows that the war will continue in his first statement. So Ayatollah Moshtaba Kamene,

who replaced his slain father as the new supreme leader of Iran, issued his first statement on Thursday

where he said the straight of Hormuz would remain closed and vowed that Iranian attacks on

US bases in the region would continue. He said in the message that was read on state TV, he didn't

make a public appearance or anything like that. But he said, quote, certainly the leverage of blocking

the straight of Hormuz must also continue to be used. And he also suggested that Iran could open

other fronts in the war and vowed that there would be revenge for Iranians who have been killed,

including the more than 100 girls and boys who were killed by the US strike on the elementary school

in the opening hours of the war. He said quote, the retaliation we have in mind is not only related

to the martyrdom of the great leader of the revolution, rather every member of the nation who is

killed by the enemy becomes a separate case in the file of retaliation. Of course, a limited portion

of this retaliation has already taken concrete form, but until it is fully realized, this file will

remain open above the others. We will be especially sensitive regarding the blood of our children.

Therefore, the crime, the enemy deliberately committed against the Shah Jara Taiba school in

Minab in certain similar cases holds a particular place in the process of accountability and quote.

And so he also addressed the killing of his father. And I'll just read this quote. I mean,

just understand who this is now, who is the new leader of Iran, the US and Israel killed his father

and his mother and his wife, sister, other family members. This is what he said quote,

leader with your departure, you have inflicted a heavy grief upon the hearts of us all.

You always longed for the end for for this end. And finally, the Almighty granted it to you while

you were reciting the Holy Quran on the morning of the 10th day of the blessed month of Ramadan.

So the US and Israel made his father a martyr. And now he is determined to continue this war.

And there's no sign of it, you know, Iranian missiles and drones are still hitting targets across

the region. We're going to get into some of that. The next one here, US and Israeli strikes in

Iran damage more than 20,000 civilian units. So the Iranian Red Crescent Society set on Thursday that

US and Israeli strikes have damaged more than 20,000 civilian units since the war began. And that

includes 17,353 residential units and 4,122 commercial units and a number of educational facilities.

And you can see this picture here, the aftermath of some of the strikes in Iran, just total destruction

here. And the bombing campaign has inflicted a large number of civilian casualties as we've been

covering. According to the human rights activist news agency or HRANA, which is the US based

rights group that has, you know, sources in Iran that's very critical of the Iranian government.

This is according to their numbers, at least 1,286 civilians have been killed. And they've also

confirmed 199 military deaths. And they said another 373 deaths have yet to be classified as

civilian or military. And they said on Thursday night, over the previous 24 hours, 10 civilians,

including three women were killed. And the financial times had a report about how the heavy strikes

on civilian targets have caused Iranians who initially supported the idea of regime change

to rethink their position. They quoted a resident of Tehran who was supportive of the protests.

She said, quote, we weren't supposed to be bombed, our city, our country. This wasn't supposed

to happen. How was it that Venezuela saw clean bloodless regime change, but not here. And,

quote, I would say the Venezuela attack was not bloodless, at least I think what 84 people were

killed, including at least four civilians. But anyway, so the strikes heavy strikes continue,

which is lots of civilian targets are being hit. The next one here, Trump says we make a lot of

money when the oil prices go up. So President Trump said on Thursday, well, he tried to portray the

increase in the price of oil as a as a positive thing, saying that the US makes more money when

prices rise, though Americans are already paying significantly more for gas. So he wrote on true

social quote, the United States is the largest oil producer in the world by far. So when oil

prices go up, we make a lot of money. But a far greater interest and importance to me as

President is stopping an evil empire, Iran, from having nuclear weapons and destroying them at

least and indeed the world. I won't ever let that happen. And quote, so you see this picture of him

here. This was from February 27th, the day before he launched the war with Iran. He was visiting

Corpus Christi, the port in Texas. And while he was there, he was bragging about how gas prices have

gone down since he came into office. So that was his line a day before the war. And now that gas

prices are rising, he's saying, Hey, you know, we're a big oil producer. So we're going to we're

going to make money. Well, who's going to make money? The oil companies are your average Americans

going to make money here? No, they're going to feel the economic pain here. According to gas

buddy, which is a company, a tech company that tracks gas prices nationwide. On March 1st,

one day into the war, the national average price of gas in the US was 294 per gallon. And as of

Thursday, it stood at 361. So about a 23% increase in just 11 days. But this is Trump's political

messaging is, you know, there was that one tweet he had where he said, Oh, only fools are worried

about the price of oil. There's not the Republicans when it comes to the politics of this are certainly

in trouble. And there's just no sign that the US is going to be able to open up the straight

for moves anytime soon. So the next one here, British tourist faces prison in the UAE for filming

Iranian missiles. So a British tourist is among about 20 people who are facing charges in the UAE

for filming Iranian attacks on Dubai as the US's Gulf Arab allies are taking steps to censor

the impact of the war. According to the Guardian, the 60 year old man is being charged with a law

that prohibits sharing material that can endanger public security. The report said that he is still

facing charges despite the leading the video immediately when he was asked to. The charge carries

a penalty of up to two years in prison and many could face similar charges for simply sharing

videos of missile attacks that have already been published online. So apparently the way that the

law and the the charges are are worded, they're very vague and they could result in people just

sharing this stuff online who didn't actually take the pictures also being arrested. And if you

remember in the aftermath when the war started, there was all these videos coming out from Bahrain,

from Kuwait from the UAE of these drone attacks. And then that stopped in a couple days. And that's

because these Arab countries have really cracked down in Bahrain. They're arresting people for

misusing social media. And the same thing, there was arrests in Kuwait. So it's a serious

crackdown and censorship. So it's really hard to know exactly what's happened. And you know,

what's being struck in these countries. So the next one here, 30 PMF fighters killed by U.S.

Air strikes in Iraq. So nearly 30 members of the Iraqi popular mobilization forces or the PMF

were killed by what were likely U.S. Air strikes in Iraq on Thursday. And this was reported by

Rudau, which is a Kurdish outlet based in Iraqi Kurdistan. And Iraq has become a major

battlefield in the U.S. Israeli war against Iran. Unnamed Iraqi security officials told AFP

that one of the strikes targeted a PMF base near the Iraq Syria border, housing Harak Ansar al-Ala

al-Afia, a militia that's part of the PMF and is under U.S. sanctions. The PMF is just for those

who don't know is a coalition of its mostly Shia militias. They were formed in 2014 to fight ISIS

and then they were absorbed absorbed into the Iraqi state security forces. And security officials

suggested that this one attack was actually a double tap, another double tap strike. One

official said quote, the base was destroyed and the rescue teams who arrived at the site were

also targeted and quote. So the PMF said that the U.S. was responsible for the strike and said the

base hasn't been used for recent attacks against U.S. assets in Iraq. The U.S. has launched multiple

rounds of airstrikes in Iraq since the war started on February 28th. And U.S. bases and facilities

have been targeted by drone attacks. So the on Wednesday, the Islamic, I covered this yesterday,

the Islamic resistance in Iraq, which is a group of Shia militias and some of them, some of the ones

in the PMF are part of this group. Others are not. This one's a little more shadowy. We don't

know exactly who's in it. According to the U.S., this one militia that was specifically targeted

here is part of this group. But they they announced, you know, 31 operations against U.S. assets

in Iraq on Wednesday. And so we're going to get into some more Iraq stuff here. So the next one,

U.S. Central Command says that it lost the KC-135 tanker aircraft over Iraq. So this is a big

story. The U.S. Central Command said on Thursday that it lost the KC-135 refueling tanker aircraft

over Iraq and that a rescue effort was underway, suggesting that it may have crashed. And there's

likely casualties. I believe there were six crew members on board. And there's a chance that

that they've been killed. We don't know exactly what the story is though at this time.

But they're claiming U.S. Central Command is claiming that this incident was not the result

of enemy fire or even friendly fire, even though I mean there's been drones and missiles flying

all over Iraq. So you know, you see something like this in a war, you assume that it got shot

down. And apparently there was a second aircraft involved, but that aircraft landed safely.

I'm not trusting what the U.S. military is putting out. You know, we've just seen a lot of,

we know that they're withholding information about attacks on U.S. troops and things.

But so we'll see if more news comes, you know, when more news comes out about this.

So the next one here, the U.K. says that U.S. troops were injured by drone attack on a base

in Iraq. So British officials said on Thursday that U.S. troops were injured in a drone attack on a

base in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan on Wednesday night, as the Pentagon has not been sharing information

about all of the U.S. casualties in the U.S. Israeli war against Iran. According to the telegraph,

a base housing U.S. and British troops was targeted by a swarm of drones. And two were shot down

by British air defenses, but others got through and struck the facility. And this report said that

the drones that hit the base in Erbil were likely launched from Tehran, from Iran. Though as I

said, the Iraqi Shia militias, some of them claimed a whole bunch of attacks on Wednesday,

so it's possible it could have been them. But this is Brigadier Guy Foden, who's a senior

British military officer who said, quote, herbal and Baghdad were both struck a number of times

last night with increasing coordination. We have personnel in Erbil who are currently helping with

the defense of that base. Last night they shot down two UAVs coming out the camp, but a number of

UAVs did impact the camp and quote, so he said that several U.S. troops were injured. Though

another British officer downplayed the casualties, saying that the injuries were nothing too serious.

But no statements, you know, from the U.S. military about these U.S. troops being injured.

And as we've been covering, you know, the Pentagon recently acknowledged that at least 140 U.S.

troops have been injured in these Iranian attacks. But they only admitted that after Reuters reported

that the number of wounded was much higher than they disclosed. And as things stand still,

eight confirmed deaths among U.S. troops, though, that number could rise with this KC-135

crash, which it does sound like it was a crash. All right, so the next one here, Israel expands

evacuation orders in Lebanon. So this one is from Jason Ditz. So Israel has announced that they

are further expanding their evacuation orders in Lebanon, introducing new boundaries to order

civilians out of dozens of other towns that were previously not impacted in the order.

The Southern evacuation order was previously telling civilians to get out of the area south of

the Latani River, but Israel revised that to the Zaharani River, which runs north of the Latani.

So this is further, they're just trying to completely clear out Southern Lebanon. And this

is just increasing that further. And the death toll has risen to at least 687 people. I believe

around 90 children are included. And at least 780,000 civilians have been displaced. And the

attacks continue. And Israel cats, the Israeli Defense Minister,

said that if Hezbollah doesn't stop resisting the invasion, that Israel would seize territory

directly, saying that they're going to take territory and everything. So it looks like they're

going to further invade on the ground in Lebanon. So the next one here, five-year-old reported

killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. So Israeli forces killed a five-year-old boy in Gaza on

Thursday. The Palestinian news agency Waffe reported as IDF attacks have continued across the

strip amid the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran. So sources told Waffe that the boy identified

as Sami Shahab, Sami Marou was killed by Israeli fire in Bait Lahia, northern Gaza. We don't

have much more information than that. But I know just from doing what I do, that the reports from

Waffe, you know, they don't just make things up if they say a five-year-old boy was killed in Gaza,

just because it didn't get any other media coverage and nobody's paying attention to Gaza. It doesn't

mean that it didn't happen. Their stuff is always accurate from what I've seen. And then on Wednesday

night, Israeli strikes hit a 10 camp west of Gaza City according to turkeys on a dolu agency.

The report said that Palestinians in the area were told to evacuate before a strike hit a government

building and fire spread and destroyed multiple tents leaving dozens of families without shelters.

You could see there's a crater right in the middle of the 10 camp and a lot of tents were burned

and now the people living in them have no shelter. So the killing in Gaza, the bomb

strikes in Gaza continue. And unfortunately, I mean, it seems like Israel has his hands full in Lebanon

and with bombing Iran, but they want to keep Gaza in this state. And it's clear that their future,

what they want to do in the future is restart the full-scale bombing campaign and

you know, try to capture more territory and with this war, with Iran raging. And it's looking

like it's going to drag on for a while. You know, I don't see Trump doing anything to stop Israel from

from something like that. All right. So the next one here, the IDF drops case against soldiers

accused of raping Palestinian. So this article is from Brett Wilkins. So the IDF on Thursday

dismissed the indictments of five soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious

Seti time in prison in July 2024 and attacked that sparked worldwide outrage. The IDF spokesperson's

office said the decision to drop the indictments of five reserve members of force 100 was made

following an examination of all the considerations, evidence and relevant circumstances.

And so this is, there was a video that came out of this that was leaked

of the soldiers actually doing this abusing raping this Palestinian prisoner who had horrific injuries,

punctured rectum and just I think a punctured lung and couldn't walk and I mean, just horrific.

And this was when these IDF soldiers were arrested for this. And then there was protests at the

base that they were arrested for abusing raping a prisoner. And now the charges have been dropped.

And they're calling it shouldn't laugh because this is just so sick. But the Israeli defense

minister is calling it a blood libel to go after Israeli soldiers caught on camera raping a Palestinian.

And I believe I'm getting the story mixed up in my head. But I forget exactly who it was.

Some kind of legal official in Israel that was involved in leaking the video because they

thought that there needed to be some kind of accountability for this horrific act.

But of course, there's none because they don't view the Palestinians as humans.

All right. So the next one here, Michigan synagogue attacker lost family in Lebanon.

So there's actually two attacks in the US on Thursday. So this article is from Newsweek,

but it's based on something Ryan Grimm from Dropsite News tweeted out. And this was also reported

by local media. So there was an attack on a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. And nobody,

as far as I'm aware, was injured or killed besides the attacker. He had explosives and he blew

himself up and and that was kind of it. But he's been identified as I'm in Muhammad,

Ghazali. And he, according to the reports, he lost family members in Israeli strikes in Lebanon

just a few days ago. And those family members included, I believe, I don't know if this is

all confirmed, but he posted pictures of them, his brother and his niece and his nephew,

little, little children who were killed. So you just see like direct blowback here in the form of

this attempted terrorist attack. And again, this is this is one of two attacks that happened

inside the US on Thursday. So we'll see if we get more details about this. But it does look like,

that was what the motive was. And then the next story here in Virginia, a gunman

at Old Dominion University killed at least one person. And he was actually previously convicted of

providing some kind of support for terrorism for ISIS. This article is from NBC News. So

authorities are investigating a shooting out of Virginia College Thursday that left one victim dead

and two injured as an act of terrorism. According to Cash Patel, the FBI director, the gunfire

erupted shortly before 11 a.m. in an ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University in Norfolk,

official said the victim, Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shaw was an ROTC instructor described by

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger as a devoted teacher who didn't just lead a life of service

to our country. He taught and led others to follow the path to other US Army personnel were injured

according to the US Army secretary. So the gunman was a former member of the Army National Guard

and he previously pleaded guilty to a terrorism-related charge. He was also killed in the shooting

the FBI identified it at him as Muhammad Bailer Jalo. So I don't know all the details here,

but according to, you know, it does indicate that he was trying to target US military personnel.

He killed an ROTC instructor and he was apparently involved in a plot back in 2016 to murder US

military personnel. According to the FBI, sometimes with a lot of these cases, it's like

entrapment on top of entrapment. But according to this, he traveled to North Carolina in 2016 to

attempt to buy an AK-47, but the gun owner refused to sell it. He then bought an AR-15 at a local

gun store and was arrested the next day. Authorities said that in the 2016 case he attempted to

provide funds to people hoping to join the Islamic State terrorist group. Better known as ISIS,

he ultimately pleaded guilty to attempting to provide this material support. And so he was released

in 2024. But I believe I forget he's from somewhere. He's an immigrant. I forget where he's

from. I don't even know if they have it in here. But the guy in Michigan, if it was from Lebanon,

and came to the US about 10 years ago or so. And we also saw, you know, there was the attack

pretty much the day after they killed the itola. There was a shooting in Austin, Texas,

which I think killed four people. And the guy there was wearing, you know, I saw a picture of his

body. He had an Iranian flag, a shirt with an Iranian flag. So we're seeing direct blowback,

you know, to what's happening in Iran in Lebanon across the region.

So the last story here, totally changing topics, Ecuador begins a US-backed law enforcement

operation. So this is from Kyle Ancelon. So Ecuador says that it will begin a law enforcement

operation against criminal activity in three regions with US support. So it's not just US

support. It's not just like the US has a history of cooperating with Latin American countries

when it comes to law enforcement. But this is the US military. It's going to be directly involved

in these operations, the extent of which we don't know exactly how they're going to be involved.

I don't know if it means US troops are going to be there on the ground. I doubt it. Maybe some kind

of military advisors and potentially some sort of strikes. If that's part of, you know, how some

of this goes down. But Trump had this new, as announced this new military organization called

the Shield of the Americans or the Shield of the Americas. And this is part of it, part of what

they call operations Southern spear, which has included the boat strikes, the attack on Venezuela,

and now these operations in Ecuador. So that is it for the news for today. I feel like I kind of

really went through everything fast there, but just been such a crazy week. Go check out our

viewpoints. We have a lot for you. One from David Stockman, Washington's 47-year war against Iran,

one from Peter Qsnik and Ivana Nicola Qs breaking the nuclear taboo. One from Karthik Sinkaran,

how Trump's move fast and break things war could hammer the economy. One from Alan Mosley,

the war on Iran is dumb. Here's why. One from Julie, Joe, Joe Neelan, new government of the Netherlands

as a poster boy for Europe's thirst for war. One from Ben Samuels, the Iran war whisperer,

one US senator has his hands all over this conflict. And our spotlights from George O'Neill at the

American conservative gangster foreign policy, which is a good way to put the way Hegseth and all

them are carrying themselves and operating through this. And lots of stuff in the lower part of the

page and at the blog and just so much going on, of course, my head has been spinning this week,

trying to keep track of it. But now I got a couple of days off, you know, I'm sure I'll be checking

on things, but we will be, you know, there's big stories and stuff will be posting updates at

at anti-war.com. A reminder. So next week, I'm going to have a short week. I'm going to do a show

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. And then I'll be out of town for Wednesday. No show that night.

There's a chance that I do one on Thursday. I'll explain all this next week as well.

But just wanted to give you people a heads up about that. But that's it for me for today.

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Pray for peace. I'll talk to you in a few days. Thanks for listening.