The Israeli Air Force targeted Iran’s internal security forces, known as the Basij, after they had set up traffic checkpoints in multiple areas across Tehran.
Israel’s military announced on Thursday that it had been targeting the Basij soldiers manning those checkpoints “during the past day,” after conducting “the extensive strike on the most central assets of internal security forces and the Basij.” It’s unclear how exactly Israel took out the checkpoints, but local Iranian state media claimed it was via drone.
Iran’s Basij is the internal security paramilitary force tasked with maintaining civil and domestic control, and it is tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Basij was the entity linked to the crackdown on nationwide civilian protests in late December and early January, allegedly killing thousands. Those crackdowns prompted President Donald Trump to declare “Help is on the way,” although it took several more weeks for Operation Epic Fury to begin in earnest.
“These forces lead the central suppression operations of internal protests, and particularly in the recent period, through the use of severe violence, widespread arrests, and the application of force against civilian protesters,” the Israeli militia statement said.
Targeting the Basij could degrade their ability to maintain control over the population.
Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held his first press conference of the war on Thursday and he said the U.S.-Israeli militaries are “crushing” Iran’s regime.
“Through an unprecedented joining of forces between Israel and the United States, we have achieved tremendous accomplishments — achievements that are changing the balance of power in the Middle East and even beyond it,” Netanyahu said.
Israel and the United States began the war against Iran nearly two weeks ago, and they assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening strikes. Iran’s Assembly of Experts selected his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to succeed his father as the next supreme leader. On Thursday, Mojtaba Khamenei released his first-ever address as ayatollah, but he did not deliver it personally.
“We promise never to hesitate in taking revenge for the blood of the martyrs,” Khamenei’s statement, which was read aloud by another individual, said, adding: “This revenge is not limited to the martyrdom of the great revolutionary leader [Ali Khamenei] but is for all the people sacrificed by the enemy.”
Since the opening strikes, Iran has launched thousands of drones and hundreds of ballistic missiles at targets in several countries across the Middle East. U.S. defense officials have said Iran’s retaliatory attacks have decreased in frequency over the course of the near-two-weeklong war.
Weeks before Trump authorized military force, there were widespread protests throughout Iran, with civilians turning out in the thousands to protest the regime. The Iranian regime cut the internet in the country, and the Basij was accused of killing thousands of protesters.
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Trump, in light of those protests, urged Iran to stop the crackdown and warned that help would be on the way for the protesters. Now, nearly two weeks since the war commenced, the regime and the Guard have taken significant losses, but they remain in control of the country.
The president has said the younger Khamenei is not an acceptable leader for Iran, though he has not explicitly labeled regime change as a primary objective of the war.