Updates from West Asia war front lines

An American soldier from the U.S. Army filmed footage of an Iranian Shahed-136 drone crashing into a radar tower at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. 

• Iran is expanding the targets. Iran published a hit list naming Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, IBM, Oracle, and Palantir offices across Israel, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi as legitimate targets - CNN. Billions of dollars of investments are going to be destroyed.

• The U.S. Navy has rejected nearly daily requests from shipping companies for escort through the Strait of Hormuz, saying that the risk of Iranian attacks remains extremely high.

• Israeli military source to The Jerusalem Post: Changing the Iranian regime was not Israel’s goal in this war. [Hard to believe.]

• OSINT and flight tracking sources: Three B-1 bombers took off from Fairford Air Base in the UK for a mission targeting Iran.

• Australia is deploying an E-7A Wedgetail early warning aircraft to the Arabian Gulf for approximately four weeks to help Gulf states detect Iranian drones and low-flying cruise missiles.
• Dubai's beaches are empty during the tourist season.

• Italian Prime Minister: We are supplying the Gulf states with air defense systems.

• Bloomberg: A US official admits that Iranian attacks destroyed the THAAD air defense system radar in Jordan.

• CNBC on navigational data: Iran is exporting millions of barrels of oil to China through the Strait of Hormuz despite navigation disruptions in the strait.

The aftermath of the Iranian attack on Tel Aviv. 

• Indian websites report: Gulf countries contacted an Indian pharmaceutical company and requested a special medicine that can be used in the event of a nuclear attack. They reportedly placed an order to purchase 10 million pills.

• Romanian TV: The United States has submitted a request to Romania to deploy additional forces at an air base in the country in order to participate in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. 

• Washington Post: An Iraqi militia drone struck and damaged a major U.S. facility in Baghdad.

• New York Times, citing sources: Iran's aggressive response forced Washington to revise plans and begin evacuating embassies in the region. Trump asserted the war's success, while his advisors avoided expressing their concerns about the operational complexities. Republicans are worried about the impact of rising oil prices on their chances before the midterm elections.

• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney: Canada does not participate in offensive operations by Israel and the United States and never will.

Another US MQ-9 drone worth over $30+ million shot down by Iran — Tasnim. That is about a dozen of them so far.

• New York Times, citing sources: Growing pessimism within the Trump administration due to the lack of a clear exit strategy from the war with Iran. The Trump administration and its advisors misjudged Iran's response to the war and its impact on oil markets.

• The Islamic Resistance factions in Iraq carried out approximately 300 operations over a period of 12 days, resulting in the death of 13 American soldiers. 

Bruce