Israel Strikes Headquarters of the Iranian Authorities Who Suppress the Protesters

Israel Strikes Headquarters of the Iranian Authorities Who Suppress the Protesters

Hugh Fitzgerald

Israel is hoping that after a few more days of crushing blows inflicted on them, those who in Iran are entrusted with the task of suppressing anti-regime protesters will be sufficiently weakened, so that mass protests can again take place, grow in size, and eventually “take back” their country, as President Donald Trump has urged them to do. More on the damage those forces have just endured during the second day of hostilities can be found here: “IDF hits dozens of Iran regime headquarters used to oppress protesters,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, March 1, 2026:

The IDF on Sunday afternoon announced that it had hit dozens of Iran regime headquarters used to oppress protesters in a potentially game-changing move designed to try to help demonstrators overcome the regime.

Two major headquarters which were struck were the Interior Ministry headquarters, which coordinated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij militia efforts against protesters all over the country and the Tharallah headquarters in Tehran, which coordinated those efforts within the all-important capital district.

Dozens of other headquarters were also struck to make it harder for the IRGC and the Basij to organize, to intimidate them from appearing in public against protesters, and to remove some of their heavier weaponry….

The Israeli planes, drones, and bombs have now, in less than two days, established supremacy in the skies over Tehran and are free to attack targets through the city at will without having to worry about Iranian air defenses that have been so battered that most of them no longer function.

President Trump has made clear that the next step, after a few more weeks of American and Israeli attacks on ballistic missile arsenals, the nuclear program, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), will be up to the Iranian people, who should now come out in force to demand the regime change that they had called for in mid-January, but were then crushed, with 36,500 protesters murdered and hundreds of thousands wounded. Now the IRGC can’t crush them. It’s the IRGC itself that is being crushed by Israeli and American missiles, drones, and bombs. Iranians, Trump insists, must make the most of the current campaign.

This chance — for Iran’s freedom — will not come again. Late on Sunday, March 1, Trump said he expects the current campaign to last “four weeks.” By then we should know if the Iranian people are ready to heed his call, and are ready to return to the streets, no longer shouting “Death to the Dictator,” but rather, “the Dictator is Dead.” We’ll know, too, whether the regime will be able to suppress them as it did in on January 8 and 9, or will do as we all hope, that is take a leaf from its former ally Bashar Assad, and fade away.