Mike Eckel

Massive explosions in Bahrain, where I am. Media reporting that the oil refinery has been hit

Iran fired 4 drones in total at Azerbaijan, per Azeri Defense Ministry: 1 was downed by air defense, 1 fell short of its target, 1 hit the Nakhchivan airport, 1 hit a school building.
mod.gov.az/az/news/azer...

"This Russian activity in the Alaskan and Canadian ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat." www.norad.mil/Newsroom/Pre...

these are pretty routine; happens every month or so. not anything of the ordinary.

Two Iranian drones struck locations in Azerbaijan today, incl. the airport in the exclave of Nakhichevan and a school. Two civilians were wounded. (Azerbaijan says it's hauled in Iran's ambassador.) This 👇 is one of several video circulating on Azeri social media channels.
mfa.gov.az/en/news/no07...

Fighting in Lebanon expands to areas that are not traditional Hezbollah strongholds In some cities, automated calls are sowing fear among residents with warnings of strikes that, more often than not, don’t take place

“I don’t know what’s going on – we have nothing to do with any of this.”

Fear and anger spread in Lebanon as Israel begins targeting areas outside traditional Hezbollah strongholds.

My report from Sidon

The White House just posted a video mixing real footage from the Iran strikes with a killstreak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

x.com/WhiteHouse/s...

Images 9-10: Dubai's Jebel Port. (Feb. 26, 2026; Mar. 1, 2026)

Images 5-8: Buildings at the Kermanshah missile base. (Feb. 21, 2026; March 4, 2026). pbs.twimg.com/media/HCl5z1...

Images 3-4: buildings at the Isfahan missile/military base, northwest of Tehran. (Feb. 27, 2026; Mar. 3, 2026)

new before/after satellite imagery from multiple locations in Iran. Images 1-2: the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, where officials say as many as 165 students were killed. (May 14, 2024; Mar. 4, 2026). Planet Lab

The US Agency for Global Media, which is run by Kari Lake, has just failed an audit. The organization's finances are too chaotic even to assess.
www.stateoig.gov/report/aud-f...

Hegseth: "Death & destruction from the sky all day. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by POTUS & yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise designed to unleash American power, not shackle it ... we are punching them while they are down"

Air Defenses Add To Evidence Of Russian Oreshnik Missile Deployment In Belarus An analysis of satellite images captured by Planet Labs suggests that six installations of systems designed to protect facilities against attacks from the air now ring a site where Russia may have dep...

🇷🇺🇧🇾 Several air defense and electronic warfare installations appear to have cropped up around a site in Belarus where #Russia may have deployed a nuclear-capable, hypersonic missile system called Oreshnik, recent satellite imagery indicates.

www.rferl.org/a/russian-or...

The Problems At Baikonur 31/6: A Launch Accident Is (Another) Headache For Russia's Space Program Russia's space program has taken a drubbing in recent years, its reputation battered by corruption scandals, shrinking budgets, embarrassing accidents, and accusations that its managers put politics a...

backstory on the problem here:
www.rferl.org/a/baikonur-l...

Roscosmos says it has successfully repaired the launch pad Baikonur 31/6, where its Soyuz manned capsules are launched from. The pad was damaged last November during a (still unexplained) launch mishap.

Qatar says it's shot down two Iranian Su-24 jets flying from Iran.

RFE/RL's Radio Farda isn't shut down. x.com/RadioFarda_

New arms race! Woo hoo!

U.S. service members killed: Another U.S. service member died Monday from injuries sustained in the initial Iranian attacks, U.S. Central Command said, bringing to four the total number of American forces killed. Two U.S. officials had told The Washington Post that the three previous fatalities were members of a sustainment unit in Kuwait. Trump warned more U.S. casualties were likely.

Four Americans were killed in the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi and it became a Republican mega-scandal for many years

Hegseth: "To the media outlets and political left screaming 'Endless wars!' Stop. This is not Iraq. This is not endless…[Trump] called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb and he's right. This is the opposite."

The USS Thomas Hudner guided missile cruiser firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iranian targets on March 1. (official US Navy footage).

Trump has told four different journalists completely contradictory things about his aims.

It's going to be over in three days or four weeks... it's about regime change but he also wants to start talks again with the current regime...he's killed all the possible replacement leaders.

Considering Dzhabrailov attempted suicide in 2020, he might have legitimately offed himself this time

ТАСС Бизнесмен Умар Джабраилов покончил с собой в Москве, сообщили ТАСС правоохранительные органы.

👀Reports that Chechen billionaire property developer (and ex-member of parliament) Umar Dzhabrailov was found dead in central Moscow (Tverskoy Bulvar), with a pistol beside his body. (type of thing not seen since the wooly 1990s). Police say possible suicide
t.me/tass_agency/...
t.me/rbc_news/144...

Live updates: At least 31 people killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon after Hezbollah attack Iran and Iranian-backed militias fired missiles at Israel and Arab states and Israel and the United States pounded targets in Iran as the war expanded Monday with statements of defiance and warnings of more U.S. casualties.

BREAKING: Fire and smoke rise from inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Kuwait after an Iranian attack. Video obtained by The Associated Press showed the smoke with an alarm wailing.

Putin expresses condolences for the death of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, calling his killing "a cynical violation all norms of human morality and international law."

The U.S. Senate must be clear: no war with Iran.

Members of U.S. Congress Are Divided on U.S. Strikes in Iran As explosions rocked Tehran, Republicans largely voiced support as Democrats warned about a costly and unauthorized conflict.

Reactions to the U.S. attack on Iran largely broke along party lines on Saturday, with Republicans praising President Trump while Democrats warned that he was dragging the country into another protracted war in the Middle East.

Where have the US and Israel hit Iran?

Several of the locations targeted by US and Israeli strikes are near important sites in Iran, including nuclear and oil industry installations.

🔗: aje.news/pi5hds