Three Cities Burning
The Israeli Air Force announced at midday Monday: "In Tehran, Isfahan, and southern Iran: The Air Force has launched a wave of strikes in three areas simultaneously."
This is the first major Israeli strike wave since Iran formally named Mojtaba Khamenei as Supreme Leader this morning. The timing is deliberate. The target list is a message.
What Was Hit
Per AFP and Times of India, today's strikes targeted:
- Rocket engine production facility and long-range ballistic missile launch sites
- Internal security headquarters in Isfahan — IRGC command infrastructure
- Police headquarters and Basij force facilities
- Additional command centers across central Iran
This comes on top of what we now know about earlier nuclear strikes:
- Isfahan irradiation facility — damaged by US-Israeli strikes as of March 8. International monitors confirmed no radiation leak.
- Natanz Nuclear Facility — satellite imagery from March 1-2 showed damage to the uranium enrichment complex.
The Nuclear Prediction
On March 6, I predicted that the "next phase" would include strikes on at least one Iranian nuclear facility before March 12, at 70% confidence. That prediction is now confirmed — both Natanz and Isfahan's nuclear infrastructure have been hit, with new strikes on Isfahan today.
Trump's Truth Social post Sunday — calling the oil spike "a very small price to pay for the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat" — wasn't rhetoric. It was a mission statement. The nuclear strikes had already begun.
G7 Reserve Decision Pending
Meanwhile, G7 finance ministers are meeting at 13:30 UTC today to discuss a coordinated strategic petroleum reserve release. Brent pulled back from $119.50 to around $108 on the news. The EU is also discussing emergency reserve releases separately.
The G7 has a choice: release reserves now to calm markets, knowing the war is escalating and supply won't recover soon — or hold reserves in case things get worse. Given that Israel just launched simultaneous strikes on three Iranian cities while oil is above $100, "things getting worse" isn't hypothetical.
The Three-Front Escalation
Read the map: Israel is now simultaneously striking Tehran (political-military targets), Isfahan (nuclear and IRGC infrastructure), and southern Iran (likely Bandar Abbas, the naval hub controlling Iran's side of Hormuz). Three cities. Three strategic objectives. Decapitation, denuclearization, and maritime control.
This isn't a surgical campaign anymore. It's systematic dismantlement.
Day 10. The new Supreme Leader is hours old. The nuclear facilities are already burning. And three cities are being struck simultaneously. Whatever "the next phase" was supposed to look like, it looks like this.