Iran nonetheless has 50% of its missile launchers and 1000’s of drones and might nonetheless ‘wreak absolute havoc’ throughout Middle East, US intelligence sources declare regardless of weeks of bombing
Iran still has half its missile launchers intact and an arsenal of thousands of drones, US intelligence sources have claimed.
The regime remains capable of ‘wreaking absolute havoc’ in the Middle East, they warned, despite weeks of US-Israeli bombardment against its assets.
Three well-placed sources told CNN that the latest American intelligence assessments indicate Iran retains significant firepower.
The estimates may include launchers that are inaccessible, such as those that have been buried by strikes, but not destroyed.
Iran still has access to roughly half of its original drone stock, two of the sources suggested, which would number well into the thousands.
A large proportion of its coastal defence cruise missiles, the weapons that allow Iran to threaten traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, are also thought to remain intact.
These may have survived because America’s air campaign has been focusing its effort elsewhere.
One concluded: ‘They [Iran] are still very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region.’
Iran retains around half of its missile launchers, according to sources familiar with the latest US intelligence assessments
Around half its stock of drones is also thought to still be available, which may exist in underground bunkers such as this one previously flaunted by the regime
Israeli soldiers stand near an Iranian missile embedded in the ground on March 24
Israel estimated Iran to have had around 470 ballistic missile launchers at the beginning of the war, and last month claimed to have destroyed or disabled around 60 percent of them.
It came under fire from Iranian missiles on Thursday, with nine impact sites in central Israel, and another incoming salvo arrived on Friday – though there were no immediate reports of casualties.
An oil refinery Kuwait was also reportedly hit with an Iranian drone attack today, sparking fires at several of its units.
On Wednesday, the President said Iran’s ‘ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed, and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces, very few of them left’.
The latest intelligence reports suggest a more limited effect, although Iran’s military has indeed suffered heavily.
As of Wednesday, the US had struck more than 12,300 targets inside Iran, according to US Central Command.
Many of Iran’s leaders have also been wiped out, including the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Ali Larijani, who was head of the National Security Council.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has pointed to a dramatic reduction in the frequency of weapons being fired by Iran.
Smoke rises after an Iranian drone attack struck fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport on Monday
Damage to a residential neighbourhood in Arad, southern Israel, after a night of Iranian missile strikes last week
He said on March 19 that the number of ballistic missiles and drones being launched were both down by 90 percent since the first days of the conflict.
Responding to the leaked intelligence, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNN that the sources were attempting to ‘demean the incredible work’ of the US military.
She said: ‘Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks are down 90 percent, their navy is wiped out, two-thirds of their production facilities are damaged or destroyed, and the United States and Israel have overwhelming air dominance over Iran.’
Overnight, Iran claimed to have shot down a second American F-35 fighter jet by forcing it to crash, with the pilot likely killed as a result, state media reported.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the aircraft was attacked over central Iran by its air defences – although US Central Command dismissed this, insisting ‘all US fighter aircraft are accounted for’.
Meanwhile, Trump is facing a growing chorus of criticism at home and abroad for his handling of the conflict.
He vowed yesterday to finished the job ‘very fast’, within two to three weeks, and threatened to bomb Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages’ if it did not sign a deal.
Global markets remain in turmoil and experts have warned of a looming food supply crisis.
He then posted on Truth Social, to say the US military ‘hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!’
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded online that ‘striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender’.
Strikes from both sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies and deepening the conflict’s impact beyond the battlefield.
Trump’s promise of further strikes accordingly caused another spike in oil prices on Thursday, when it surged to around $110 a barrel.
In signs of restlessness from the administration, Hegseth has undertaken a purge of the armed forces, culminating in the firing of the Army’s most senior uniformed officer, General Randy George, on Thursday night.
The Pentagon confirmed to the Daily Mail that two more high-level members of the Army had been fired: General David Hodne, head of the Army Transformation and Training Command; and Major General William Green Jr, the head of the Army’s chaplain corps.
