Israel’s first round of airstrikes, in what the Israeli government is describing as an extended campaign to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program, killed several top Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists.

Several others’ statuses remain unclear as of Friday, variously reportedly as killed, injured, or potentially defecting.

Targets confirmed as of Friday morning included:

Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Salami was the most important target eliminated by Israel’s attack. Iranian state media reported he was “martyred in the Israeli regime’s attack on the IRGC headquarters” in Tehran.

An Israeli security official told Fox News on Friday that Israel used its extensive knowledge of the top IRGC commanders to lure them into a meeting and “keep them there” until an airstrike wiped them out. Israel used similar tactics to destroy the leadership of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It is possible Iranian media accounts of Salami’s death are either confused or deliberately misleading, as some other reports say he was killed at his home in Tehran.

Sixty-five years old at the time of his death, Salami was one of the most powerful men in Iran. He joined the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and was appointed its commander in 2019 by “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2019.

The IRGC is the theocratically-controlled wing of the Iranian military and is also a designated terrorist organization, responsible for recruiting and arming Iranian proxy forces across the Middle East.

Salami was noted for constantly threatening attacks against the United States and Israel. He ordered Iran’s two failed missile strikes against Israel during the Gaza war, which provoked Israel to wipe out much of Iran’s air defense network, which paved the way for the swift elimination of the IRGC commander on Thursday night.

The day before Israel took him out, Salami claimed Iran’s military was “fully ready for any scenarios, situations, and circumstances.”

“The enemy thinks it can fight Iran the same way it fights defenseless Palestinians who are under an Israeli siege. We are war-tested and experienced,” he boasted.

On Friday, Khamenei decreed that Salami’s replacement would be Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, former IRGC leader and interior minister under President Ebrahim Raisi. Vahidi was the first commander of the IRGC’s foreign terrorism squad, the Quds Force. The most famous of his successors was Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was eliminated by order of President Donald Trump in January 2020 after plotting attacks on Americans in Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces. Somewhere between 65 and 68 years old according to various sources, Bagheri became the highest-ranking officer in the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2016. Before that, he was an intelligence officer in the IRGC, ultimately joining an “elite force” that carried out the most “sensitive missions.”

Bagheri was under heavy sanctions by the United States, Canada, UK, and European Union for his role in violently suppressing the Mahsa Amini uprising in 2022, and for implementing other “destabilizing” policies of Supreme Leader Khamenei. The European Union sanctioned him in 2022 for supplying drones to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, head of IRGC Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters and deputy chief of staff for the armed forces.

Rashid was born in 1953 and was regarded as a heroic activist during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He was among the first intelligence directors of the newly-formed IRGC. Like Salami, he was a military commander during the brutal war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s.

The Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters is a joint operations center for the IRGC and the regular Iranian army. It is considered the primary engineering department of the IRGC, playing a key role in the development of Iran’s ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. According to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Khatam-al Anbiya was “heavily involved” in building the Fordow nuclear enrichment plant, a heavily fortified underground facility.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of IRGC aerospace forces. According to Israeli officials, Hajizadeh was killed along with other top leaders of the IRGC air force while meeting in an underground command center to plan attacks on Israel.

“Hajizadeh publicly pledged allegiance to the idea of destroying Israel on multiple occasions in recent years and played a central role in formulating the plan to destroy Israel,” the Israeli military said.

Hajizadeh, reportedly in his early 60s, was a sniper and artillery officer during the Iran-Iraq War. He was instrumental in building Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles with acquisitions from North Korea and Libya. He also played a role in establishing the underground nuclear facility at Parchin in 2002.

In a 2020 interview, Hajizadeh said he was hand-picked by Supreme Leader Khamenei to provide Iran’s terrorist proxies across the Middle East with ballistic missiles.

Like other top Iranian military officials, Hajizadeh constantly boasted that his forces were more than a match for Israel. In 2009, he declared that “in case of any aggression, the Zionists’ F15 and F16 aircraft will be trapped by our aircraft and destroyed, and if one of their aircraft manages to escape Iran’s air defense, before it can land, the bases from which these aircraft have taken off will be struck by our destructive ground-to-ground missiles.”

None of that happened on the night Israel killed Hajizadeh with astounding speed and precision, after dismantling his vaunted air defenses and neutralizing his ballistic missiles. Several of his top officers died alongside him, including the leaders of the IRGC’s air defense and drone commands.

Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, key Iranian nuclear scientist and politician. Abbasi is a former IRGC officer who joined its research center for missiles and nuclear weapons in 1984. He was the vice president of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization from 2011 to 2013.

Abbasi was the most prominent of the six Iranian nuclear scientists eliminated by Israel’s airstrikes. He has been cited as one of the most important players in concealing Iran’s illicit research from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He was sanctioned by the United Nations in 2007 for participating in Iran’s illegal development of nuclear weapons.

Abbasi became head of the Atomic Energy Organization a few months after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt on the streets of Tehran. His appointment was seen as a gesture of symbolic defiance by the regime toward the U.S. and Israel, both of whom Iran blamed for trying to kill him with a bomb planted on the door of his car. By all accounts, Abbasi was not very good at his job – he was notoriously poor at dealing with the media – so he was soon replaced.

A hardline Islamist, Abbasi was elected to the Iranian parliament in 2020 and held his seat until 2024. He has said he would be happy to build a nuclear bomb if the Ayatollah commanded it and believed it was impossible for Iran’s nuclear program to be neutralized by military action or assassination, including his own death.

Mohamed Mehdi Tehranchi, physicist and president of Islamic Azad University. Tehranchi was the other big name among the six nuclear scientists killed on Thursday. Islamic Azad University is Iran’s largest institution of higher learning. Tehranchi was also a professor of laser and plasma research at another school, Shahid Beheshti University.

Tehranchi supervised Iran’s first effort to build a nuclear weapon in 2004, the so-called “Amad Plan.”

He was sanctioned by the U.S. Commerce Department in 2020, after President Trump pulled out of former president Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran due to the regime’s “unacceptable nuclear escalations.”

Notably, not even the infamously Iran-friendly Obama administration was willing to lift the sanctions against Shahid Beheshti University, where Tehranchi’s work on lasers was seen as important to Iran’s uranium enrichment program.

Ali Shamkhani, former IRGC commander and adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei. Shamkhani was either killed or critically injured in Thursday night’s attack, according to various Iranian sources. His residence atop an apartment building in Tehran was apparently destroyed by an Israeli missile.

Shamkhani was one of the lead negotiators involved in indirect talks with the United States. In May, he floated a suggestion that Iran might be willing to sign a deal that eliminated its stockpiles of near-weapons-grade uranium in exchange for the U.S. lifting sanctions. Iranian officials said on Friday that if he is dead, nuclear diplomacy died with him.

Shamkhani was among Iran’s top strategists, and has long been the top-ranking ethnic Arab in the Islamic Republic.

Esmail Qaani, head of the IRGC Quds Force, successor to the late Qassem Soleimani. Qaani’s fate was one of the most intriguing question marks hanging over the first stage of the Israeli operation as of Friday morning. He was the deputy commander of the Quds Force until Soleimani was eliminated, after which he was named the new chief of the terrorist unit by Ayatollah Khamenei.

Qaani would seem to have solid credentials for the job, having served in the Iran-Iraq War and developed a close personal friendship with Soleimani. He was also on good personal terms with Khamenei.

Nevertheless, rumors have persisted over the past few years that he was actually an asset for Israeli intelligence who provided information crucial to eliminating the leaders of Hamas and Hezobollah. On Friday, there were unconfirmed reports he was exfiltrated to Israel after the airstrikes. Other rumors said Qaani was killed in the strikes. His true fate was not a matter of public knowledge as of early Friday afternoon.

John Hayward, Breitbart

Neville Singham is a proud socialist who made almost $1 billion in America then fled to China

Now he’s married to the Code Pink activist leader Jodie Evans and they fund LA riot groups while living in communist Shanghai

Unfortunately for Neville, he’s getting called in to testify under oath about his funding of violent riots in America

Can’t hide anymore!

D.C. Draino, X

A senior Iranian official said Friday that the Tehran regime will target the regional bases of any country that assists Israel.

“Iran reserves the right – under international law – to respond decisively to this regime,” the official told CNN. “Any country that attempts to defend the regime against Iran’s operations will, in turn, see its regional bases and positions become new targets.”

Iran accused the U.S. of being complicit in the attacks, which the Trump administration denied, telling Tehran on Friday at the U.N. Security Council on Friday that it would “be wise” to negotiate over its nuclear program, The Jerusalem Post reported.

After Israel began Operation Rising Lion on Thursday night, targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, Secreta Istaelry of State Marco Rubio said Israel acted unilaterally and that the U.S. was not involved.

“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran,” Rubio said in a statement released by the White House. “We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.

“Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”

President Donald Trump reportedly said Friday that Israel used “great American equipment” in its attack.

U.S. and Israeli sources told CNN the U.S. military helped to intercept Iranian missiles launched against Israel. One Israeli source told CNN other countries in the region also supported Israeli air defenses.

Michael Katz ✉

Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and 

The Titanic, one of history’s most infamous maritime disasters, has captivated people for over a century. While the tragic sinking of the “unsinkable” ship resulted in over 1,500 lives lost, the wreck itself has been the subject of extensive exploration. Despite the numerous expeditions using state-of-the-art submersibles and underwater filming technology, a striking detail has never been discovered: there are no human remains, no skeletons, on board.

The absence of these remains has raised significant questions, with one of the most perplexing being why such evidence hasn’t surfaced, even after years of searching.

Life Jackets and Ocean Currents

James Cameron, the director behind the iconic 1997 film Titanic, has visited the wreck site over 30 times. In a 2012 interview with The New York Times, he confirmed, “I’ve seen zero human remains. We’ve seen clothing. We’ve seen pairs of shoes, which would strongly suggest there was a body there at one point. But we’ve never seen any human remains.”

One possible explanation lies in the life jackets worn by many passengers and crew members. Though the Titanic was famously under-equipped with lifeboats, many managed to don life jackets before succumbing to the freezing Atlantic waters. These life jackets provided buoyancy, keeping victims afloat long after they passed away. As a result, their bodies were likely carried away by the ocean’s currents.

Over the years, storms and drifting currents would have swept these bodies further from the wreck site, making it unlikely that any remains would remain near the ship’s resting place.

Depth and the Dissolution of Bones

Another crucial factor in the absence of skeletons lies in the depth of the wreck. The Titanic rests approximately 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface of the ocean, well beyond the reach of typical scavengers. While bones have been discovered on other shipwrecks, they have not survived at such depths. Deep-sea conditions, particularly the calcium carbonate compensation depth, play a significant role in the dissolution of bones.

As deep-sea explorer Robert Ballard explained in a 2009 interview with NPR, “The issue you have to deal with is, at depths below about 3,000 feet (around 914 meters), you pass below what’s called the calcium carbonate compensation depth.” This specific layer of the ocean is undersaturated with calcium carbonate, a key element that makes up bones. As a result, the bones that are exposed to deep-sea organisms, such as scavenging fish, quickly dissolve.

Even after scavengers have fed on flesh, the bones themselves slowly disappear due to the corrosive conditions at such depths. The combination of these conditions makes the preservation of human remains extremely unlikely at the Titanic site.

The Potential for Preserved Remains in Sealed Areas

Some experts speculate that there could still be preserved human remains in areas of the ship that remain sealed off. Locations such as the engine room, where fresh, oxygen-rich water may not have been able to penetrate, might offer a more sheltered environment where remains could potentially be intact. However, more than a century has passed since the Titanic sank, and the likelihood of finding any remains in these areas seems remote. While the wreck site itself continues to be a focus of exploration, the search for human remains in such locations is largely seen as fruitless at this point.

At this stage, the wreck site has become a solemn reminder of the tragedy that occurred, and many believe it is best to let the victims rest in peace, preserving their memory rather than continuing to search for physical remains.

Staff, Daily Galaxy

The best argument against democracy is five minute conversation with the average voter.—Sir Winston Churchill

Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, was killed during an Israeli strike in Iran, The New York Times reported on Friday evening, citing an Iranian source.

Qaani succeeded Qasem Soleimani as commander after the latter was killed in a targeted operation by the United States in 2020.

What was Qaani’s mission in the Middle East?

From an intelligence perspective, Qaani’s mission appears to have had several dimensions, none of which have escaped the vigilance of Mossad, the CIA, or allied intelligence agencies in the region.

Qaani also wanted to revive and consolidate control of Iraq’s Shia terrorist groups. These militias, whether Arab, Sunni, or Kurdish (including the Barzanis and PKK), maintain close ties with the IRGC. Qaani aimed to exert more direct influence over groups like Hashd al-Shaabi, preventing the collapse of Iran’s proxy network in Iraq. Figures like Ali Sistani, who shared Khamenei’s vision of a Shia crescent, are unlikely to oppose these efforts.

This is a developing story.

Staff, Jerusalem Post

In recent hours, Israeli Air Force fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence from the Intelligence Directorate, completed a large-scale strike against the aerial defense array of the Iranian regime in western Iran.

As part of the strikes, dozens of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers were destroyed.

Throughout the war, the IDF has systematically targeted the aerial defense systems of the Iranian regime and its proxies across the Middle East.

These strikes enhance the Israeli Air Force’s freedom of aerial operation.

Israel was said to have neared complete air supremacy over Iran, meaning that it would be able to attack Iranian targets at will.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Israel, its allies, and regional Arab countries together intercepted Iranian drones fired in retaliation for the massive Israeli airstrike launched early Friday, stopping them before they reached Israeli airspace.

As Breitbart News reported, Iran launched 100 drones at Israel after the Israeli Air Force (IAF) hit targets across Iran in a surprise attack that hit Iranian military leadership and nuclear sites in several waves.

Israelis were advised to remain near bomb shelters. However, the Jerusalem Post reported, the drones were all intercepted outside Israel — as in an earlier Iranian attack on Israel in April 2024.

The Post explained:The IDF’s Home Front Command rescinded the order to stay near sheltered areas nationwide on Friday morning, following a reduced threat analysis after the military said it intercepted drones launched from Iran.The IDF has not officially confirmed that every single drone was shot down, and there could be many more launched, but at this time, enough were shot down to make the home front instructions temporarily more lenient. The instructions could quickly become strict again at some point if and when Iran launches another large attack.Israel shot down the drones by scrambling aircraft as soon as Iran was confirmed to have launched the drones.

As in April 2024, several countries reportedly participated in shooting down Iranian drones that crossed into their airspace:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his case before his people and the world in a seven-minute video explaining his reasoning for striking at Iran’s nuclear weapons program, killing senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders and six nuclear scientists.

Without the preemptive strike, Israel would have been targeted with “the new plan” to destroy Israel, Netanyahu said.

“Last year, Iran fired 300 ballistic missiles at Israel,” Netanyahu said. “Each of these missiles carries a ton of explosives and threatens the lives of hundreds of people. Soon, those missiles could carry a nuclear payload, threatening the lives not of hundreds — but of millions.

Iran is gearing up to produce tens of thousands of ballistic missiles within three years. Now just imagine — imagine 10,000 tons of TNT landing on a country the size of New Jersey. This is an intolerable threat. It, too, must be stopped.

“Iran is now working on what it calls ‘the new plan’ to destroy Israel.”

And there are reports that plan is being bolstered by its axis partners in Russia and China.

Iran had placed the order of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China to fuel hundreds of ballistic missiles for its IRGC and terrorists proxies in the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported in an exclusive last week.

The shipments were coming in the next few months, so Netanyahu did not hesitate to strike at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program before it could officially boast a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile.

“These substances are a major fire and explosive hazard,” International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Fabian Hinz told the Journal.

“Iran’s defense industrial complex does not have a strong track record in ensuring safety standards.”

Notably, Iran authorities order an acceleration of clearing “hazardous materials” through customs, the Journal reported.

“I want to assure the civilized world: We will not let the world’s most dangerous regime get the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Netanyahu said in his address to the world. “Iran plans to give those weapons — nuclear weapons — to its terrorist proxies. That would make the nightmare of nuclear terrorism all too real.

“The increasing range of Iran’s ballistic missiles would bring that nuclear nightmare to the cities of Europe, and eventually to America.

“Remember: Iran calls Israel the ‘Small Satan.’ It calls America the ‘Great Satan.’ And this is why, for decades, it’s led millions in the chants of ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America.’

“Today, Israel is responding to those genocidal calls with action, and with a call of our own: Long live Israel, and long live America.

“Our action will help make the world a much safer place.”

Eric Mack ✉

Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.

I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to “just do it,” but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done. I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it. Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. God Bless You All! 

A graduate student fears she won’t be able to complete her 11th year of college in America because President Donald Trump might deport her.

Oriette D’Angelo, a doctoral student studying Spanish and Gender, Women and Sexuality studies at the University of Iowa, moved from her home country of Venezuela to Chicago in 2015 on a student visa.

Because consulate buildings were closed at that time due to Venezuela’s shattered relationship with the US, she had to travel to Colombia to renew it, D’Angelo told the outlet.

The 34-year-old, who is also a professor, chose to flee her home of Lechería after she watched it decline.

Although she’s been in the US for years to seek academic and professional opportunities, D’Angelo is scared her dreams could soon be crushed by Trump’s administration as he continues to crackdown on illegal citizens in America.

After finding out that her studies might come to an end, D’Angelo, who often writes poetry around themes of dictatorship for class, told friends she would mail Trump’s administration notebooks of her work if she was forced to head back to Venezuela.

‘It would be almost impossible to start over,’ she told the Chicago Tribune.

Over the years, D’Angelo has come face to face with immigration rules and guidelines, including when her Venezuelan passport expirI’m 2020

She then applied for temporary protected status (TPS), which was introduced under former President Joe Biden to help citizens of countries stricken by war or natural disaster get temporary work.

When she came back to the US in November 2024, D’Angelo was processed under TPS, not her student visa, as she made her way through O’Hare International Airpomailrt.

She had officially lost her foreign student status even though her whole reason for moving to the US was for her to study.

Daily Mail