A very strong magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurred in the North Atlantic Ocean near the coast of n/a in the morning of Saturday, Mar 21, 2026 at 9.16 am local time (GMT -3). The depth of the quake could not be determined, but is assumed to be shallow.The quake was reported felt by some people near the epicenter.
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Very strong mag. 6.7 Earthquake - Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge
The hidden weapons Iran is keeping in reserve
Iran is revealing new military capabilities as its war with Israel and the US enters its fourth week, and the regime still has more cards to play, from as-yet-unseen missiles to allied militias and sleeper cells abroad.
The missiles fired at the US-UK Diego Garcia base required a range of around 2,400 miles, far beyond previous estimates of Iran’s capabilities.
Tehran’s military also deployed the Haj Qasem, a newly developed medium-range ballistic missile with a half-tonne warhead, for the first time this week. Iran’s most powerful weapon, the Khorramshahr-4, has been used in greater numbers in recent attacks.
Regime officials remain bullish despite heavy personnel and material losses inflicted by US-Israeli air strikes, and are threatening escalation.
Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said in an interview this week that: “We are using weapons in this war that we have not used in the past, and we will use them more in the coming days.”
After a sharp decline in Iran’s rate of fire of missiles and drones after the first days of the conflict, open-source conflict trackers say both launches and hits have increased, amid reports of declining interceptor stockpiles in the region.
Deep Dive Defence, a pro-Iran military analysis blog, said that Iran has been practicing a strategy of “low intensity preserving warfare” in the hope of exhausting the US, Israel and Gulf allies, leaving high-value targets exposed to more damaging strikes.
This week, Iran claimed a series of confirmed impacts in Israel, including on the Haifa refinery and strikes on critical energy infrastructure across the Gulf region.
Anti-ship cruise missiles and advanced drones
Iran continues to introduce surface-to-surface missiles to the war, and scored a notable success this week with a surface-to-air strike that brought a first hit on a US F-35 fighter jet. The US military said the aircraft was damaged but made an emergency landing, with the pilot in a stable condition.
Iran has also tested – but not used in combat – space launch vehicles, such as the Simorghand Zuljanah, which US analysts believe could be repurposed as long-range ballistic missiles, with a potential range in excess of 2,500 miles.
Iran can achieve a similar range – sufficient to hit Diego Garcia – by reducing the size of the warhead on missiles such as the Khorramshahr-4, experts believe.
The regime is also known to have amassed a large stockpile of cruise missiles, including anti-ship variants that could prove effective in close-quarters fighting if naval vessels attempt to break its blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Farzan Sabet, an Iranian security and politics specialist at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland, said Iranian cruise missiles have not been effective in previous rounds of fighting against Israel but “could do more damage against less-prepared and nearer Gulf countries countries that have less time to track and intercept” them.
He added that its anti-ship missiles “could be very effective against civilian and even military vessels” in the narrow confines of the Hormuz Strait, although this has yet to be tested in practice.
The US military has signalled its concern with a series of bunker-buster strikes along the coastline of the Strait that it said were targeting anti-ship cruise missile placements.
Donald Trump has pledged to seize control of the vital shipping route, and suggested the US Navy could provide escorts for oil tankers, but military planners are wary of exposing vessels to the dangers they would face, which could include marine drones and mines as well as missiles.
Iran also appears to have made little to no use of some types of advanced drone it is believed to possess, said Sabet.
Beyond the workhorse Shahed-136, which has proved effective enough to spawn imitations across numerous foreign militaries, Iran has developed the jet-powered successor Shahed-238, which is said to be faster and harder to intercept.
Sabet said that three other models that were revealed in a 2024 hack could also potentially be deployed.
Allied militias could be activated
Middle East analysts have been puzzled by the non-intervention of Yemeni militants, the Houthis, a close ally of Iran that have already fought lengthy battles against US-led and Saudi-led coalitions.
But that could change at any time. The group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, has warned “our fingers are on the trigger” and researchers at the International Crisis Group have reported signs of military preparations.
Houthi defence minister Abed al-Thawr said last week that a first stage of intervention could involve “a naval blockade against the US and Zionist regime”, reprising a tactic that paralysed Red Sea shipping between 2023 and 2025.
Andreas Krieg, a Gulf security expert at the war studies department of King’s College London, said that a Houthi blockade of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, one of the major alternatives to Hormuz, would be an “armageddon scenario” for global energy markets.
However, he added that the Houthis could prioritise restoring ties with neighbouring countries after damaging wars. “The Houthis are primarily a local Yemeni actor that will decide on action based on how it serves their internal interests and objectives. They would not want to be cannon fodder for an Iranian strategy.”
Iran could also look to escalate through allied militias in Iraq, but the most powerful of these, Kataib Hezbollah, has already been weakened by US assassinations.
Sleeper cells and agents abroad
Iran is believed to have a global network of agents that could be activated for covert operations against designated targets. British police have reported thwarting dozens of plots traced back to Tehran in recent years.
The Netherlands announced on Friday that it was stepping up security for Iranian dissidents after a member of the expat community was shot and injured. On Thursday, the United Arab Emirates said it had broken up an Iranian and Hezbollah cell operating on its territory.
Colin Clarke, a counterterror specialist at the Soufan Group, told The i Paper that Tehran could seek to “operationalise” its networks abroad as it “climbs the escalation ladder”.
Iran’s agents abroad are “opportunistic in terms of seeking out vulnerabilities,” he said. “I would be highly concerned about bombings, especially vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, attacks against embassies, cultural institutions or any symbolic soft target that would be American, Israeli, and/or Jewish.”
Krieg added that Iranian assets could also “be activated to execute terrorist activities against US and Israeli targets in the UK”.
“Jewish community centres are quite vulnerable. But they might choose to target offices of Israeli companies in the UK or even US companies,” he said. “I still think the threat is low at this point but it is not zero.”
Failed interception in Dimona strike leaves 51 hospitalized, child seriously hurt; Iran: Retaliation for Natanz strike
ynet
About 51 people were wounded in an Iranian missile strike on Dimona, including a 12-year-old boy in serious condition, as Tehran said the barrage was retaliation for reported attacks on its nuclear facilities.
The strike in Dimona, which left dozens of people wounded, including a child in serious condition, occurred after an interceptor was launched toward the missile but is believed to have missed. The IDF said it is now investigating the circumstances of the apparent failure.
Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said a report was received of a structural collapse at one of the impact sites. It remained unclear whether the missile carried a cluster warhead.
Iranian state-affiliated Tasnim news agency said the launches were revenge for an earlier strike on the Natanz uranium enrichment site and a previously reported attack at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The Israeli military denied earlier any involvement in the Natanz strike and did not confirm U.S. responsibility. Tasnim said the barrage was intended to signal that no location is beyond the reach of Iranian missiles.
Earlier, rocket fire from Lebanon triggered sirens in Maalot-Tarshiha and surrounding areas, as dozens of rockets were launched in recent hours. Several impact sites were reported in the city, and according to initial reports from Magen David Adom, two people were lightly wounded.
Footage circulating online also showed a hole in a building hit in Maalot-Tarshiha after the rocket fire from Lebanon.
Natanz enrichment facility targeted in US-Israeli attack, Iranian media reports
By TOI STAFF
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemns the attack on Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility.
“This is a blatant violation of international law,” the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says in a statement.
Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that the Natanz nuclear enrichment site was attacked, the agency said in a post on X.
Sirens warning of rocket fire, drone infiltration sound in northern Israel
CENTCOM chief: US ‘zeroed in’ on Iranian threat to Strait of Hormuz shipping
Chief of the US Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, says the American military remains “zeroed in on dismantling Iran’s decades-old threat to the free flow of commerce throughout the Strait of Hormuz.”
“For example, earlier this week, we dropped multiple 5,000-pound bombs on an underground facility located along Iran’s coastline. The Iranian regime used the hardened underground facility to discreetly store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers, and other equipment that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping,” he says in a video update.
“We not only took out the facility but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements,” Cooper says.
“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result, and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” he adds.
CENTCOM chief says 8,000 targets struck in Iran, degrading Tehran’s military capabilities
Chief of the US Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, says the American military has struck over 8,000 targets in Iran since the start of the war, while noting that Iranian attacks have continued to decline.
“So far, we’ve struck over 8,000 military targets, including 130 Iranian vessels, constituting the largest elimination of a navy over a 3-week period since World War II,” Cooper says in a video update.
“My operational assessment continues to be: Iran’s combat capability is on a steady decline as our offensive strikes ramp up,” he says.
Cooper says the US military is “taking out thousands of Iranian missiles, advanced attack drones, and all of Iran’s navy, which they use to harass international shipping.”
“Their navy is not sailing, their tactical fighters are not flying, and they’ve lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at the high rates seen at the beginning of the conflict,” he says, adding, “our progress is obvious.
Rocket strike in northern city causes slight damage as more sirens sound in Galilee, Golan Heights
India’s Modi condemns regional attacks, stresses shipping security in call with Iran’s Pezeshkian
Hezbollah's gamble drags Lebanon into a war within a war
With the region ablaze over the Iran conflict, the Lebanese are focused on surviving their own war within a war.
Their war pits Hezbollah against Israel, with the Lebanese government caught in the crosshairs. The fighting began when the Iranian-backed group fired rockets and drones into Israel on March 2, ostensibly to avenge the assassination of Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the US-Israeli attacks on their benefactor.
Now the already fractured country’s latest nightmare is on track to get much worse.
“There is no longer a safe place,” declared one journalist on MTV News Lebanon, using a phrase that echoed Palestinian descriptions of Gaza early in that war.
With evacuees from the south and Beirut’s Dahiya area flooding parks, the seaside corniche, and anywhere they could pitch a tent, the IDF deployed the Gaza analogy that same day, dropping leaflets over Beirut announcing: “In light of its success in Gaza, the new reality is coming to Lebanon.”
Israel then began expanding its targeting of Hezbollah leaders and infrastructure, as well as establishing more positions in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah kept up daily barrages on Israel’s northern communities.
By March 15, the Lebanese death toll had reached at least 850 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The Lebanese Red Cross said on March 16 that around 900,000 people had been displaced by the fighting and evacuation orders.
Meanwhile, the Hezbollah fire, though less devastating, was spreading fear and disruption, including a hit Monday that set a house in Nahariya on fire, lightly wounding 15 people, according to Magen David Adom.
The IDF, meanwhile, said its troops were conducting “limited and targeted” ground operations that appeared ready to morph into a major offensive to push back Hezbollah and significantly reduce its ability to strike across the border.
It’s classic asymmetrical warfare, but the Middle East’s most powerful army will need a decisive win to claim victory, while for Hezbollah, mere survival will be enough.
Israel also faces tough challenges of how deep to penetrate in Lebanese territory, how long to stay, how widely to target, and when and whether to negotiate with the Lebanese government, which shares its animus towards Hezbollah but has thus far been reluctant to disarm it or clash with it.
It would be a pyrrhic victory if Israel devastates Hezbollah while undermining its potential peace partners in Lebanon’s cabinet by rebuffing them and razing Lebanon.
Miri Eisin, a former spokeswoman for prime minister Ehud Olmert and a retired IDF colonel, who served as deputy head of the combat intelligence corps, told The Jerusalem Report that she hopes Israel carefully weighs the impact of its actions on the Lebanese government.
“I think we’ll continue acting against Hezbollah, and we’ll threaten Lebanon. I want to hope the threat is a fading face because this government may not like us, but it hates Hezbollah and Iran more, and that’s a win.”
Eisin stressed the importance of concluding the operation swiftly. “Right now, the people of Lebanon still blame Hezbollah, but there is going to be a tipping point when we accidentally kill a lot of civilians,” she said, referencing artillery shelling during a 1996 operation in southern Lebanon that caused 106 fatalities among civilians sheltering at a UN compound. A UN commission said it was a deliberate strike, while Israel disputed that finding.
“When that happens, we lose all the capability to say we’re acting against Hezbollah and the Lebanese government will lose its credibility,” Eisin said.
For now, that does not seem to be an Israeli concern. During the first week of fighting, the Khardali bridge across the Litani River in the south was destroyed by the IAF. The act not only prevented Hezbollah from using the crossing but also served as a warning to the Lebanese government.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said following the strike that there would be ”escalating costs in harm to infrastructure and loss of territory,” unless the Lebanese army fulfills commitments to disarm Hezbollah.
Along with the air strikes and rocket fire, a battle over narrative has already begun, with Hezbollah trying to convince its support base that it was right to open a new round with Israel and that their suffering is for a worthy cause. Even though it started the war, Hezbollah seeks to cast it as a defensive battle.
Traditionally, Hezbollah had drawn its legitimacy by asserting that its arms protected Lebanon from Israel. But after its defeat by Israel in the war that followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, the group emerged weakened and on the defensive. Its charismatic leader and the voice of the resistance, Hassan Nasrallah, had been assassinated.
More voices in Lebanon moved to the fore, condemning Hezbollah as an Iranian implant that threatened Lebanon’s interests. A new cabinet under Prime Minister Nawaf Salam was launched, which was verbally committed to the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups.
But given that Hezbollah’s militia is clearly stronger, better trained, and more motivated than the Lebanese army, this commitment has not materialized on the ground despite the government saying – without basis– that the militia had been disarmed in the area south of the Litani River.
Still, when it attacked Israel in early March, Hezbollah found itself isolated as never before, with even fellow Shi’ite leader Nabih Berri, the speaker of parliament, criticizing its decision.
Much of the media also opened fire on Hezbollah. Anthony Samrani, co-editor-in-chief of Beirut’s L’Orient Today, flayed the terrorist group in a commentary on March 2.
“All we know is that the split between Hezbollah and the rest of Lebanon is now final… Hezbollah has decided to drag Lebanon into a new war, already forcing thousands of Lebanese to flee their homes.”
“This time, there must be no excuses for it, whatever the Israeli response may be. This time Lebanese authorities need to treat the militia for what it is: a growth of the Islamic Republic that must be done away with, before it ends up wiping out what is left of Lebanon.”
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