Image is of a destroyed American AWACS plane in Saudi Arabia, of which there is a very limited supply and each of which is enormously expensive both monetarily and in terms of components. Iran hit this with a precision drone strike that likely cost ~$20,000.
I don't have much to add from the last megathread description. This isn't to say that nothing has happened or has changed since then - decades are still happening in weeks - but the general flow of the war is remaining the same. Trump sometimes threatens to open the Strait with troops and flatten Iran to rubble, and other times threatens that he's gonna back off and let other countries handle it if they really want little trifles like "fuel" and "energy" so much. Iran continues to strike across the Middle East. The West continues to bomb civilian infrastructure due to their relative inability to affect the missile cities. In all: things are generally getting worse for America and the Zionists.
April is the month where the last ships that left Hormuz before it was closed will arrive around the world, so the last month of economic turmoil has been a mere prelude to what's going to occur in the near-future. The silver lining is that Iran appears to be formalizing the new state of affairs in Hormuz, creating a rial-based toll to allow passage between a pair of Iranian-controlled islands where they can be monitored, meaning that, as long as the US doesn't do something exceptionally stupid, the global energy crisis may "only" last a couple years instead of simply being the new reality from now on. Some countries have already agreed to this arrangement, and others will inevitably follow despite their consternation as their economies increasingly suffer.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on the Zionists' destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Update: the US is currently conducting Combat Search And Rescue (CSAR) missions in Iran, with fixed wing and rotary aircraft. This was a very recent shoot down. HC-130J Combat King II fixed wing aircraft and HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopters are pictured and filmed flying very low inside Iran in broad daylight, incredible videos (in that I thought we'd never see something like this).
CSAR operations
Another video
The bridge in the second video (31,5915000 N, 50,2755280 E), is over 100 miles from the Iranian coastline. They're deep inside Iran.
Probably posted already, but first evidence of a US or Israeli manned aircraft shot down (not damaged or hit, but actually shot down) over Iran. Parts of an F-15E Strike Eagle from the US Air Force's 494th Fighter Squadron, based at RAF Lakenheath and forward deployed to the Middle East, have appeared in what looks like central Iran with all the mountains in the background. Crash crater as well. This is a seperate incident from previous Iranian shoot down claims, and is not an F-35 as claimed by Iranian outlets like Press TV and even UK outlets like Sky News. Iran has also posted no footage of the shoot down itself, just the wreckage. ~~Unknown when the shoot down happened, long ago and recently discovered, or if it happened recently.~~ But it is the first evidence of a manned US aircraft shot down.
Unknown what kind of system was used to shoot it down, but parts of the rear elevators and vertical stabilisers appearing suggest a rear aspect hit, which would most likely be an infrared guided system.
Source thread with pictures
EDIT: apperently the denial refares to the Shootdowns Mystery event of Yesterday .
Accounted for doesn't mean in good condition. A known down plane is "accounted for". If fake then why all the souvenirs falling from the sky?
It's accounted for don't worry. The US knows exactly which mountain the plane smashed into so it's definitely not missing. It's just indefinitely out of service pending retrieval and repair
Think the CENTCOM denial is from a previous incident, this shoot down is very recent. CSAR is currently ongoing in broad daylight, not a shoot down from over 15 hours ago. This is also no where near the Strait of Hormuz, the CSAR aircraft are over 100 miles from the Iranian coastline, yet alone the strait. CENTCOM tell lies/truth by omission, they'll deny the obvious, but if they have no comments, it likely happened.
Supposedly this is the ejection seat. Not an expert on it, but it looks in a not good condition.
https://xcancel.com/ErinReily/status/2040036173360550184#m
Yeah that's the ACES II ejection seat used by the USAF. You can tell by the yellow grips. Nothing is going to look in great condition after an ejection. It's lying on it's back in your image:
Is it true that ejecting pilots typically suffer injuries from the G forces of the ejection? I've seen that "factoid" before.
Yes, usually pilots are a little bit shorter afterwards from spinal compression. Spinal and neck injuries are very possible. You can also snag limbs or hands/fingers/toes on stuff in the cockpit, and lose them. If pilots can fly again (for the military or even for a civilian airliner), depends on if you can pass your medical or not. I think to fly in civil aviation you need a Class 1 medical, I don't know about the military, either the same or stricter. Some will fly again, some not.
critical support to the johns mccain getting shot down multiple times
If they are conducting search and rescue this means the pilot is broadcasting his position with some kind of beacon while hiding in the mountains (maybe he could even send a message over starlink) ? Are Iranian ground forces hunting them in (presumably) forested difficult to access terrain?
Yeah, encrypted radios, SATCOM devices, etc. It's a hunt for who can find the pilot first.