You’re so vain, you probably think this tab is about you …
Drones all over Tehran tonight hitting Basij and IRGC stations.
The regime’s crackdown machine is being neutralized.@Tarikh_Eran pic.twitter.com/PRcxLyvi85
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 11, 2026
Ed: Help is on the way. And this time, it’s aiming at the specific targets needed.
===
Iran International: IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported that Israeli drones targeted multiple checkpoints across Tehran on Wednesday evening, killing several security personnel and Basij members stationed there. The report described the attacks as “terrorist” strikes.
According to Fars, explosions and clashes were reported at several locations in the capital.
An unnamed official cited by the outlet said the attacks were a joint operation by Israel’s Mossad and monarchist groups aimed at infiltrating operatives and carrying out sabotage inside the country.
Ed: It’s interesting to see Fars reporting this, although its claim about “terrorism” is laughable. Iran targets civilians routinely, and its terror proxies target civilians almost exclusively. This confirms that the IDF has good intel on these regime members and is acting to get them out of the way for Iranians who want to seize control. It’s the kind of information that regimes under attack generally want to keep quiet.
===
🔴 BREAKING:
Both regime and non-regime media confirm that drone strikes have begun against street level IRGC and basiji units.
Checkpoints and vehicles are being struck. Suppression forces are being killed in large numbers.
A NEW PHASE HAS BEGUN pic.twitter.com/AlaV9iujS9
— 𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 🇮🇷 ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) March 11, 2026
Ed: This is the effort that can break the regime. These forces are not used to being under attack, especially the Basij, who are mainly amateur brownshirts deputized by the IRGC. Unit cohesion will break down under any real pressure, and then suddenly enough of them will realize that the end is nigh and simply disappear.
===
Amit Segal at the Free Press: According to Iranian state media, Khamenei sustained leg injuries in the initial U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran. The injuries must be quite serious if a cardboard ayatollah cuts a more commanding figure than a wheelchair-bound Khamenei.
But there is another possibility.
According to one report, there is a conspiracy: The strike did more than injure Khamenei’s legs. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elevated its preferred candidate while Khamenei Jr. was in a coma and is still unaware that he has been made Supreme Leader. This theory rests on the fact that, since his appointment two days ago, Khamenei has not delivered a single speech, video address, or even written statement. There is also the curious location of Iran’s interim leadership council’s first meeting last Thursday: a hospital corridor.
If Khamenei is indeed incapacitated, the obvious question arises: Who is in charge of the regime?
If I had to guess, a cadre of senior IRGC commanders.
Ed: This isn’t just a possibility – it’s an overwhelming probability. In fact, I doubt Mojtaba survived the strike. The hospital corridor is the most believable part of the story, though. Regime leadership has probably all moved into hospitals, since they know we won’t hit hospitals, not even to kill senior leadership. And that matters, because they’re leaving the grunts on the street, and … that’s not going well.
===
And there you have it, the first instance of hyperlocal targeting of regime patrol units by drones. IRGC media confirmed saying several were killed.
For the first time ever, repression forces fear for their lives just as protestors do.
This is how you change the calculus. https://t.co/NyZc32anSp— Janatan Sayeh (@JanatanSayeh) March 11, 2026
Ed: So much for the deterrent of missiles and drones, eh?
===
Holy Cow….
A massive mushroom cloud today over the city of Qom, Iran’s clerical capital. pic.twitter.com/4gin3HE9WZ— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) March 11, 2026
Ed: Just a reminder that it’s not all drones and spot strikes. This is a strike using conventional munitions; it may have hit a “missile city” that detonated catastrophically, or some other armory or fuel depot.
===
Just the News: “People of Iran, We are waging a historic war for liberty. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to remove the Ayatollah regime and gain your freedom. Together with the United States, we are hitting the Tyrants of Teheran harder than ever,” Netanyahu’s office posted on X.
“The Ayatollah is no more, and I know you don’t want him replaced with another tyrant. So you must act. We are creating the conditions for you to do so. We have hit countless Regime targets. We have taken out thousands of IRGC thugs and hundreds of their missile launchers,” the post continued.
“We are focused on regime targets and are doing our best not to harm the People of Iran. We are your ally. Your best ally. We fully respect your sovereignty, culture and heritage. You asked for help and help has arrived. We will continue to hit with growing force the tyrants who terrorized you for decades. The Ayatollahs and their henchmen are on the run – but those cowards have nowhere to hide. In the coming days we will create the conditions for you to grasp your destiny.
“Your dreams will become a reality. When the time is right, and that time is fast approaching, we will pass the torch to you. Be ready to seize the moment!” the post concluded.
Ed: Help isn’t just on the way. It’s arriving in droves.
===
Israel is inside Iran taking out checkpoints and the Shah is online telling Iranians to get ready for the next phase. Something is happening.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) March 11, 2026
Ed: The regime’s news agencies are already leaning into this, warning Iranians about the “monarchists.” I’m not a fan of the Pahlavis as an alternative to a real secular republic, and the Iranians have long memories about life under the Shah and the Savak. But if the mullahs think that they are a reasonable alternative for Iranians, they really are deluding themselves. Speaking of which …
===
Jerusalem Post: Iran has demanded a guarantee that neither Israel nor the US will attack the Islamic Republic in the future in order to sign a ceasefire for the current conflict, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed Iranian officials.
The officials told Bloomberg that the main concern of the regime is a resumption of Israeli operations in Iran once the current war is over.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a social media post that “the only way to end the war is recognizing Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm international guarantees against future aggression.”
Ed: That’s a hard nope, dawg. Pezeshkian seems to think that he’s holding cards in this contest. Most laughably, Pezeshkian started this demand by claiming to have “reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to peace in the region” after more than 40 years of sponsoring terror networks and committing terror directly. I doubt that Iran’s neighbors see them as peaceful these days either. It is interesting, though, that Pezeshkian is the one trying to stop the war.
===
“A terrorist attack outside Gracie Mansion” is the new “crossed state lines with an assault weapon to attend a BLM rally”—media speak designed to obscure the truth and give the false impression that Right-wing people are violent terrorists in scenarios where they are its victims https://t.co/sMJGLVk6b5
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) March 11, 2026
Ed: This is the extinction burst for the Protection Racket Media and their entire “Islamophobia” narrative. They are losing it in real time with this war, and they have no backup plan.
===
NRO editorial board: What neither he nor any of the peaceful counterprotesters in attendance expected was for two young men — identified in reports as Emir Balat (age 18) and Ibrahim Kayumi (age 19) — to rush forward, shout “Allahu akbar,” and hurl improvised explosive devices into the crowd. The bombs, filled with bolts and screws, thankfully failed to detonate, and the two men were immediately apprehended by a fast-moving NYPD.
There is no doubt as to their motivations: Both men spoke freely and unrepentantly to police at the scene, proudly claiming inspiration from ISIS and stating they had intended their terrorist atrocity to be “bigger than Boston” — a reference to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that took the lives of three and injured scores more. Only the incompetence of the bombers prevented Saturday from turning into one of the darkest days in recent New York history.
Yet one would know none of this were one to go only by the headlines and framing devices the mainstream media have consistently used to explain this story to American readers, who — like it or not — primarily consume their news in headline rather than article form.
Ed: The attempts to remove the motive and the identities from this story – and to suggest that the attackers were diametrically different from who they were – have been astonishing. Most media orgs have gone into full propaganda mode to conceal the truth from their consumers.
===
In the span of 48 hours, the CNN account, a CNN anchor, and a CNN senior reporter have all falsely suggested the terror attack last weekend was targeting Mamdani.
The first two have been corrected, but a bad look when reps for a news network keep repeating same false claim. pic.twitter.com/PnDJHbwLms
— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 11, 2026
Ed: This. Is. CNN.
===
As for the @TMZ Generated “outrage” or as it will be inevitably called lobster-gate here is some important context:
In 2009 when Robert Gates was the secretary defense during the Obama administration in Iraq and Afghanistan here is a story from a reporter who was embedded with… pic.twitter.com/j57quAM7Tk
— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) March 11, 2026
Ed: Speaking of stupid media narratives, this one is almost as bad. What makes it worse is that the “surf and turf” dinners got widespread media coverage in the week before the strikes on Iran, as the media used them to speculate that the war was about to start. Now they’re all acting as though they’ve never heard of the Pentagon feeding the troops anything other than MREs.
===
Ira Stoll at the Free Beacon: Trump didn’t say so out loud, but similarly and totally obliterated are whatever slim hopes the isolationist forces ever had of capturing Trump’s Republican Party. The isolationist-industrial complex might as well be at the bottom of the Gulf of Arabia along with the Iranian Navy, given how irrelevant and ineffective it has shown itself to be.
Don’t take it from me. Even the isolationists—sorry, the self-identified “restraint-oriented” camp, which I’d be more hesitant about describing shorthandedly as isolationist if they were less hesitant about slapping the “neocon” label on all the non-isolationists—are, basically, confessing as much. …
If the “restraint” camp in Washington is depressed already, imagine what their reaction will be if and when freedom breaks out in Iran and the Islamic Republic is vanquished and replaced by a government that no longer threatens the region, America, and the Iranian people.
Ed: I certainly hope this succeeds. Unlike these isolationists, I am convinced that this was entirely necessary and long overdue. The “punitive expedition” and regime destruction are likely the best of an array of risky options to end the malignant and dangerous mullahcracy. But I’m going to channel my inner Winston the Wolf until we get rid of the body and clean up afterward. IYKYK.
===
My sources inside Iran are telling me there have been massive lower level defections from the IRGC & Basij this week. The regime’s “security” goons have been staying home and been seen in several cities with plain clothes. Their neighbors in each city and town know each of them. pic.twitter.com/guHZsh5J6K
— Karmel Melamed (@KarmelMelamed) March 11, 2026
===
Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you’re digging these Final Word posts and want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!
