A senior Israeli air force officer said Israel\u2019s strikes have killed thousands of Iranian soldiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past two days, we have killed thousands of Iranian forces,\u201d said Col. \u201cAleph,\u201d the commander of the Ramat David Airbase -\u2014 identified only by his first initial in Hebrew \u2014 in a video published by the military.<\/p>\n
The airbase commander said he had participated in a wave of strikes on a massive Iranian military compound in eastern Tehran.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeconds before I dropped the bombs, I looked right and left, and saw dozens of fighter jets beside me. They\u2019re flying freely, dropping hundreds of tons of precise munitions and destroying the targets,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\t Among the airstrikes reported on Wednesday, the IAF said it carried out \u201clarge-scale\u201d attacks in Tehran targeting a massive Iranian military compound, which housed headquarters and personnel from across Iran\u2019s security apparatus.<\/p>\n More than 100 fighter jets carried out the airstrikes against the compound in eastern Tehran, dropping more than 250 bombs, the IDF said.<\/p>\n At the complex, the IDF said, it hit the headquarters of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC Quds Force, intelligence directorate, Basij paramilitary force, Iran\u2019s cyber unit, the special forces unit of Iran\u2019s internal security forces, and a \u201cprotest suppression\u201d unit of the internal security forces.<\/p>\n \u201cThe headquarters were struck while personnel of the Iranian terror regime responsible for managing the campaign, advancing terror plans against the State of Israel and countries in the region, and suppressing Iranian civilians were operating from them,\u201d the military said.<\/p>\n Additionally, an armed Iranian ballistic missile launcher in the Kermanshah area in western Iran was destroyed by an Israeli F-35I fighter jet, the military said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Israeli Air Force continues to strike missile launch sites and missile launchers in order to remove the threat posed to the State of Israel,\u201d the military added.<\/p>\n An \u201cextensive\u201d wave of Israeli airstrikes in central and western Iran destroyed dozens of Iranian ballistic missile launchers and air defense systems. According to the IDF, some of the missile launchers were armed for attacks on Israel, and they were struck while Iranian soldiers were operating them.<\/p>\n The IAF also destroyed Iranian air defense and detection systems at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.<\/p>\n There have been at least 11 waves of strikes in Tehran since the start of the conflict, including at least two on Wednesday, the IDF said.<\/p>\n \t Division of labor between Israel and US<\/p>\n The Israeli military also revealed how it was dividing the work with the American military during the campaign \u2014 geographically, by target types and by relative advantage.<\/p>\n Geographically, the IAF was operating against Iranian ballistic missile launchers and other military assets in western and central Iran, because Iran fires long-range ballistic missiles at Israel from those areas.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the American military was operating against Iranian missile launchers in Iran\u2019s south, as it has used those areas to fire shorter-range missiles on US bases in the Gulf.<\/p>\n For target types, Israel and the US have also split their work. The American military, for example, has taken responsibility for targeting the entire Iranian Navy. Israel has meanwhile focused on other targets, based on relative advantage, such as regime sites in Tehran.<\/p>\n \t Additionally, the IAF has relied heavily on the US military\u2019s aerial refueling capabilities, as the US military has roughly 10 times the IAF\u2019s refueling fleet. Dozens of US refueling tankers have been stationed in Israel amid the conflict.<\/p>\n Israeli military officials described the conflict as the first full-scale joint war between Israel and the US, following extensive joint planning in recent months.<\/p>\n There are \u201cjoint coordination cells\u201d in both Israel and the US operating amid the campaign, synchronizing intelligence, targets, and defense, according to the IDF. More than 1,000 American troops are stationed in Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a war in English,\u201d a military official said.<\/p>\n IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has been speaking daily with US CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper, according to the military.<\/p>\n \t Meanwhile, some officials in the IDF believe that Gulf states \u2014 which have been attacked by Iran amid the conflict \u2014 will join the campaign offensively.<\/p>\n The Gulf states are mainly involved defensively, shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones aimed at their countries.<\/p>\n Also, IAF chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said Wednesday that Israeli special forces have been conducting \u201cextraordinary\u201d operations during the ongoing conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cThe troops of the air force\u2019s special units are currently carrying out extraordinary missions that can spark one\u2019s imagination,\u201d Bar wrote in a missive to IAF soldiers.<\/p>\n Bar did not elaborate further on the nature of the operations or where they were conducted.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tA person stands on the roof of a building looking at a plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital Tehran, on March 3, 2026. (Atta Kenare\/AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/19883d42-10a9-408d-9d9d-de05f2b935b6.jpg\")
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\n\t\tAn Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jet takes off from an airbase in Israel for strikes in Iran, in a handout photo published on March 2, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9546155-e1772678654948.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA US sailor stands by as an F\/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft lands on the flight deck aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford while operating in support of Operation Epic Fury in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, March 2, 2026. (US Navy)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26060508437333-e1772503382951.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA black plume of smoke rises from a warehouse at the industrial area of Sharjah City in the United Arab Emirates following reports of Iranian strikes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Altaf Qadri)<\/p>\n
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