Trump has named a mountain — Pickaxe — and says the U.S. will hit it 'pretty soon.' I want to know whose intelligence put that target on his desk. If you're just joining, the renewed U.S.-Iran war had already moved beyond isolated strikes before this latest round. U.S. attacks resumed inside Iran, Tehran hit U.S.-linked positions across the region, and the Pentagon identified two Army air-defense soldiers killed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan — with another service member possibly killed as operations continued. This is Iran War Daily. Tonight — a tanker crew abandoning ship in the Strait, a nuclear complex under a mountain, and Rubio saying Tehran isn't 'serious.' Let's start with that mountain. This one's from ABC News:
The US military says it has completed an 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran, Tuesday local time, with reports of a number of explosions across the country. Earlier, Donald Trump had signalled the US is "not finished" attacking Iran and warned American forces could soon target a site where it suspects Tehran is developing an undeclared enrichment facility.
Here's the escalation tonight: U.S. Central Command says an 11th straight night of strikes is done, and Trump has now put a name on the next target — Pickaxe Mountain, near Natanz. But hold onto the word 'suspected' there. Trump says the U.S. could target a site where it suspects an undeclared enrichment facility — so that's still a suspected facility he's threatening to bomb, not a confirmed one. And the case for Pickaxe runs through Israel — Israeli intelligence says Iran moved centrifuges under that mountain, and now Trump's holding it up as a target. Somebody handed Washington a justification. I want to know who, and why now. That's the part I'd watch — U.S. intelligence reviewing an Israeli assessment. Two steps away from a confirmed fact before anyone drops a bomb on it. Meanwhile CENTCOM's own line is that the strikes are about shipping in Hormuz — hangars, drone sites. Eleven nights of that and Trump's suddenly talking nuclear tunnels near Natanz? The mission statement keeps moving. NBC News, with Mosheh Gains, Courtney Kube, Gordon Lubold:
The Defense Department on Monday released the names of two soldiers killed in Iranian strikes in Jordan, identifying them as 25-year-old Tyler James Feehan of Hawaii and 19-year-old Isabella Gonzales of Texas. Gonzales was killed Friday and Feehan on Saturday. The Pentagon did not provide details on the exact circumstances of their deaths.
The Pentagon has now put names to the two soldiers killed in Jordan: Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Hawaii, and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Texas. Gonzales was killed Friday, Feehan Saturday. And one detail to keep in mind — per NBC, both were assigned to missile-defense commands under Operation Inherent Resolve, the counter-ISIS mission that's been running since 2014. The Pentagon says they were not technically part of the Iran war. Right — and then Trump stands in front of reporters Sunday and says they died making sure Iran can't get a nuclear weapon. Two different missions, one convenient sentence. That's the split, Rich. The Defense Department files them under Inherent Resolve; the President folds them into Operation Epic Fury. Same deaths, two different stories about why. A 19-year-old from Texas gets drafted posthumously into the war the White House wants to be fighting. And there's the possible third case — a service member killed in northern Iraq, plus unidentified remains being recovered in Jordan. That part still hasn't closed. AP News, with Ben Finley; Farnoosh Amiri:
The U.S. and Iran are back to bombing every day in a bid to control the Strait of Hormuz. And neither is backing down, showing the limitations of President Donald Trump’s reliance on escalating airstrikes to bend Tehran to his will.
A tanker crew is climbing into lifeboats in the Strait of Hormuz this morning — abandoning ship — on the same day the U.S. runs its eleventh strike package. Eleven nights of bombing and Iran still shut a vessel down in the chokepoint. AP's Ben Finley and Farnoosh Amiri put it sharply: daily airstrikes are hitting a ceiling. Iran gets hit every night and still reaches out and touches shipping in the Gulf whenever it chooses. So ask the war-risk underwriters. What's Lloyd's quoting to write a hull policy on a tanker transiting Hormuz today versus two weeks ago? Because that number is the honest scoreboard here, not the strike count. And before we fold this into a pattern, I'd want the vessel details — whose flag, what cargo, who operated it. One documented abandonment tells us more than the broad 'Hormuz battlefield' language we've been swimming in. Right — because a crew in the water is a fact. Trump 'bending Tehran to his will' is a press line. The AP just put those two things side by side and let the gap sit there. From Darren Lyn at Anadolu Agency:
Israeli intelligence believes that Iran moved thousands of nuclear centrifuges into tunnels deep inside Pickaxe Mountain, and US President Donald Trump has threatened to attack the site, according to a Tuesday report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The report indicates that Tehran transferred thousands of uranium-enriched centrifuges to Pickaxe Mountain, also known as Mount Kolang in Iran, last fall after the 12-day war in June when American and Israeli forces conducted airstrikes on Iran's three main nuclear sites.
So the WSJ says Israel believes Iran moved thousands of centrifuges into the tunnels under Pickaxe Mountain last fall — and now Trump's threatening to hit it. The question I've got: who built that intelligence picture? Because it reads like Netanyahu handed Washington a target it couldn't map on its own. And that's the part I want to slow down on. This is an Israeli intelligence assessment, then reviewed by U.S. intelligence, then reported by the Wall Street Journal. That puts us two steps away before we treat the centrifuge relocation as fact. Anadolu dates the move to after June — after American and Israeli forces struck Iran's three main sites in that 12-day war. So the claim is that Iran rebuilt underground. Believed, not confirmed — not by inspection, not by the IAEA in this report. And the WSJ says it plainly — Israel's war aims have diverged from Washington's, and Netanyahu's pushing Trump to resume all-out attacks. So when Israel's the one supplying the assessment that justifies the next strike, I'd want to know who decided to make it public and when. Al Jazeera is tracking this. Marco Rubio, on the record today via Al Jazeera, AFP and Reuters: the U.S. is 'open' to negotiations, but Tehran isn't 'serious.' Put that next to Baghaei two days ago, saying Iran has proposals in hand from several mediators and the channel is live. Open to talks. On night eleven. While we're publicly naming Pickaxe Mountain as the next target. That's a funny definition of open. A named U.S. official and a named Iranian official, forty-eight hours apart, describing the same channel in opposite terms. I'm not going to smooth that over — the gap is the story. And nobody's asked Rubio what 'serious' actually means. Because if the ask includes a nuclear complex buried under a mountain that eleven rounds of strikes haven't cracked, then 'not serious' is just Washington's word for 'won't surrender the thing we can't hit.' It's the first named U.S. response on the diplomatic track since Baghaei briefed. It's partial, but it's public — and 'suspended' is now being said out loud, not just allowed to drift. Got a question, a story idea, or a correction for us? Send a note to iranwardaily at lantern podcasts dot com. We read your messages, and they help us make this briefing sharper.
We’ve put links to all of today’s stories in the show notes, so if there’s one you want to spend more time with, you can find it there. That’s Iran War Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.