The interminable pace of the Middle East war took an elevated, more threatening turn this week. As the war enters the second month, the headlines cease to be purely about strategic marches and are now of the high cost in human life and the pass of long dreaded red lines. The war was escalated twice: a direct Iranian attack on a large U.S.-occupied base in Saudi Arabia and a raft of high-stakes Israeli airstrikes against the most sensitive Iranian nuclear targets.
Strike on Prince Sultan: A Base Under Fire
To the troops based at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, the morning was not filled with the normal desert heat, but filled with the sound of the incoming missiles and high-pitched whine of the suicide drones. It is a base that is regarded as the backbone of U.S. air operations in the area which was the target of an Iranian advanced counterattack.
Reports by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) indicate that there were at least 10 American service members who were similarly wounded in the attack. Although most of the injuries could be termed as not life threatening, two soldiers are still in a critical condition. It was not only physical harm to the staff, the strike actually struck the flight line causing a few U.S refueling airplanes to be damaged the very ones that are keeping the air campaign by the coalition against Iran afloat.
On the ground, it was a nightmare experience of the extent of the war. It is one thing to view the information on the screen in a command center but the other is to feel the ground shake on your boots in a location that you believed to be relatively safe, said one of the officials under condition of anonymity.
Read also: US-Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facility
Piercing the Veil: Strikes to the Nuclear Heartland of Iran
As the dust was yet to settle in Saudi Arabia the Israeli fighter jets were carving up the skies in the central Iran. Israel launched a comprehensive attack on two of the most vital Iranian nuclear related targets in what many observers had cautioned was the point of no return:
- Khandab Heavy Water Complex (Arak): A site that the IDF boasts was being restored at a very fast rate to create weapons-grade plutonium.
- The Ardakan Yellowcake Production Plant: The sole plant of its kind in Iran, which is situated in the Yazd Province.
The Israeli military presented the operation as a preemptive requirement, that Tehran was exploiting the fog of war to expedite its road to the nuclear arm. There have been no radioactive leakages as reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, the director general Rafael Grossi has made a plea to have maximum military restraint because the world is flirting with fire on the edge of the nuclear tinderbox.
Read more: Middle East Erupts as Israel and the United States Strike Iran
The Human Toll: Cities Eating People
The second month of this war has left a trail of displacement and hopelessness beyond the army language of impact sites and degraded capabilities.
The situation in Lebanon has become what the UN terms as staggering. More than one point five million individuals out of almost 20 percent of the population have been displaced. The families are sleeping in school corridors and on the streets of Beirut and tend to escape the third or fourth time as the buffer zones are extended.
The situation is equal in gloominess within Iran. Global humanitarian watch dogs are saying that Tehran is a hollowed city. Simple amenities such as water and electricity are flickering in the southern provinces and a total internet blockage has rendered a countrywide internet access, leaving families with no power to call loved ones. The official number of those killed in Iran has gone beyond 1,900 with thousands more injured.
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