Iran’s Tactics and Targets Open a New Chapter in the War

Around midnight on Sunday morning, April 14, a barrage of approximately 170 suicide drones, over 30 cruise missiles, and over 120 ballistic missiles were launched from Iranian soil and Iran’s proxies in Syria and Yemen and reached Israel between 1...

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Around midnight on Sunday morning, April 14, a barrage of approximately 170 suicide drones, over 30 cruise missiles, and over 120 ballistic missiles were launched from Iranian soil and Iran’s proxies in Syria and Yemen and reached Israel between 1 and 2 a.m.

Most of the barrage (around 99 percent, as reported) was intercepted by the Israel Defense Force’s Air Defense and the Iron Dome with help from an alliance made up of the U.S. Navy and U.K, French, and Jordanian air power. The 1 percent that made impact resulted in shrapnel injuries to a Bedouin girl, who is currently in critical condition, and structural damage to the Nevatim Airbase in Israel’s Negev Desert; however, it did not result in any interruption to flight operations.

The aerial attack came following Israel’s presumed April 1 strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus that killed seven, including Quds Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy. The strike triggered Iran to quickly promise a response. Days leading up to Sunday morning’s aerial barrage, U.S. and Israeli intelligence had been tracking Iran’s mobilization of hundreds of missiles and drones while the Israeli Home Front Command issued warnings and guidance procedures to the public.

The Iranian barrage was unlike anything Israel has experienced yet in its ongoing war. It warrants a closer look that could reveal much about Iran’s future engagement and the global direction the war might be heading.

With the exception of occasional suicide drones (UAVs) from the Houthis in Yemen, aerial attacks on Israel in recent months have largely involved short-range unguided rockets from Hamas in Gaza and limited precision guided rockets from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The morning of April 14 was the first time Israel has had to deal with long-range guided missiles and UAVs on a large scale.

Rocket attacks from Gaza and southern Lebanon also afford the Israeli public little response time due to their geographic proximity. The Home Front Command “rocket alert map” indicates how many seconds one has to expect a rocket impact and find shelter after the public siren is sounded. In the safest regions of Israel, one has approximately three minutes at the most. Because of greater distances in this situation, the Israeli public had approximately one to two hours’ notice from the time missile launches were confirmed from Iranian soil at midnight to the interception and impact in Israel between approximately 1 and 2 a.m.

While Israel has conducted its war against Hamas and Hezbollah largely with its own forces, the Iranian attack warranted a much greater international response. Days prior to the attack, U.S. naval warships were positioned in the region. The USS Carney and USS Arleigh Burke alone downed at least six ballistic missiles from their positions in the eastern Mediterranean while destroyers from the U.S. Central and Eastern Command “shot down 80 one-way-attack uncrewed aerial vehicles, in addition to the ballistic missiles,” according to CENTCOM. Jets from the British Royal Airforce also took off from airfields in Cyprus after the launch had been confirmed and were joined by Royal Jordanian jets in intercepting missiles and drones. “This partnership has always been robust, but last night it was exceptionally evident,” Rear Admiral and IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the following day.

But looming quietly behind the scenes are Tehran’s potential allies should Israel retaliate. So far China and Russia have been somewhat quiet during this war, but, should military action spread further beyond the Levant, global military powers might be forced to pick sides and act on it. As I expressed in a previous article, Iran’s military leverage and spheres of influence are global, and governments from Latin America to the South Pacific with strong military and economic partnerships with Tehran might find themselves entangled in foreign hotspots that they never intended.

Less noticeable to the global audience but acutely felt by the Israeli public on the morning of April 14 were the new areas in Israel that Iran targeted. Although missiles were flung across the entire country (over 750 sirens went off across Israel), for the first time in the war, the scattered and sparse towns in the southern Negev Desert became prime targets and locations of impact.

Previously, rocket attacks from Hamas in Gaza have concentrated on densely civilian populated areas along the Mediterranean coast or the greater Tel Aviv and Jerusalem metropolitan areas for obvious terrorizing effect and because of the rockets’ limited precision and reach. In the north, although less populated than the coast, Hezbollah’s attacks have been accurate in repeatedly targeting the same urban centers in the Galilee and Golan, namely Kiryat Shmona and Safed.

The recent targeting of neglected desert towns in the Negev is indicative of a new chapter in the war. On the one hand, it’s a clear signal that no one in Israel — a country no larger than New Jersey — is safe should the war continue to escalate with Iran. On the other hand, Iran revealed its true motives and anxieties. In addition to terrorizing densely populated areas, Iran also targeted the IDF bases, Nevatim airfield, and the isolated town of Dimona, home to Israel’s nuclear plant, in the Negev.

Ever since the war erupted after Oct. 7, commentators have noted that Iran’s eventual participation greatly increases the threat of nuclear engagement. Thanks to millions of American dollars and a blind eye in Washington during the Obama administration, Tehran’s nuclear program now poses a real threat to the region. Iran’s strategic targeting of key military and nuclear sites in Israel is a tactic yet to be fully employed by Hamas and Hezbollah, who continue to fix their sights mostly on civilian centers. Although it was a failed attempt to cripple Israel’s security and offensive capabilities, Iran’s attack conveys its anxieties over nuclear superiority and retaliation.

As is by now evident, Iran’s direct assault on Israel has unfortunately ushered the nuclear question closer to the table while significantly engaging Israel’s foreign allies to assist in defensive military action. This clear display of alliance is reassuring, yet also indicative of an expanding theater of war. Its unlike Israel to let such aggression go unpunished, even after the Biden White House expressed a firm unwillingness to support a military retaliation and urged Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu instead to consider his successful defense “a win.” Nonetheless, an Israeli response is predictable and inevitable, as talks are currently underway in the Knesset War Cabinet, and the question remains whether the allies who showed up on the morning of April 14 will show up again in the future.

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The post Iran’s Tactics and Targets Open a New Chapter in the War appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.