Iran could be ‘destroyed overnight in a massive shock and awe attack’ says leaked US ‘war plan’
Patrick Knox
IRAN would be blitzed to bits by the US in a colossal “shock and awe” attack which destroy the regime over night, leaked documents show.
Codenamed Theatre Iran Near Term (TIRANNT), the war plan is believed to be the blueprint for a strike that would pave the war for crushing the country’s powerbase within 24 hours.
The attacks would resemble to 2003 ‘shock and awe’ strikes against IraqCredit: EPA
Barrage upon barrage of Tomahawk missiles would rain down
B-52s would saturate the country’s key sites with tens of thousands of tons of bombsCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would face the same fate as Saddam HusseinCredit: EPA
A war on Iran has been on the drawing board on the Pentagon for more than ten years.
But rising fears of an imminent conflict after Terran’s missile and drone strike on Saudi oil plant attacks, the leaked plans have reemerged and are viewed by experts as how a US attack would unfold.
Almost certainly Iran’s nuclear plants and facilities would be destroyed first.
And while conventional weapons would be used instead of nukes, the attack would nonetheless crush Iran’s military strength with little more than a day.
Under TIRANNT, cruise missiles would be unleashed from ships in the Gulf and bombs dropped from formations of B52 Stratofortress as well as B2 stealth warplanes
More than 10,000 targets would be pummelled.
The US has made military preparations to destroy Iran’s weapons of mass destruction, nuclear energy, regime, armed forces, state and economic infrastructure within days if not hours
US study conclusion
Planes could fly from the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.
Presently there is only one US Navy aircraft carrier deployed to the Gulf, the USS Abraham Lincoln.
But the plan highlights how six aircraft carrier groups can be dispatched off the coast of Iran at a month’s notice.
The sheer intensity of the air raids would mirror the 2003 “shock and awe” attacks in Iraq.
This quickly saw that country’s defences crumble before an invasion swept dictator Saddam Hussein from power.
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The Islamic Revolutionary Guard would be hammered flat in the open hours of the massive attackCredit: Reuters
The war plan, which also involves NATO and Israeli forces, was leaked by William Arkin, a former US intelligence analyst in 2007.
The blueprint was subsequently examined by Dr Dan Plesch and Martin Butcher.
Their study concludes: “The US has made military preparations to destroy Iran’s WMD (weapons of mass destruction), nuclear energy, regime, armed forces, state apparatus and economic infrastructure within days if not hours.
“Any attack is likely to be on a massive multi-front scale but avoiding a ground invasion.”
US and Iran – a troubled history
• Before the 1979 Iranian revolution, Iran was one of America’s biggest allies in the Middle East and was led by the US-backed Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
• However, since the seismic revolt, Iran has been led by murderous Islamic fundamentalists and tensions with Washington have remained ever since.
• On November 4, 1979, the Iranian regime took 52 US diplomats hostage in response to President Carter’s administration allowing Iran’s deposed former leader into America.
• The hostage crisis lasted for 444 days and also included a failed rescue mission which cost the lives of eight US soldiers.
• In April 1980, the US ended diplomatic relations with Iran – a break which lasted for more than 30 years.
• In April 1983, Washington blamed the Iranian-funded terror group Hezbollah for carrying out a bombing attack on the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
• The assault, carried out amid a brutal civil war in Lebanon, killed 17 Americans.
• In November of that year, two truck bombs in Beruit killed 241 US peace keepers. The US again blamed Hezbollah for the incident.
• The Clinton White House, in 1995, placed a total embargo on Iran meaning US companies could not trade with the country.
• And in 2002, George W Bush included the Islamic Republic in his famous “Axis of evil” speech along with North Korea and Iraq.
Although 10,000 targets may be selected, these sites would be on the top of the list
The document does not, however, mention the use of cyber-attacks on power stations and government offices, which would almost certainly be used alongside bombs and missiles in a bid to bring the country to its knees.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said today the US has already started a cyber-war with his country.
In an interview on NBC, he said: “There is a cyber war going on.”
The Iranian official cited Stuxnet, a computer virus that is widely believed to be a joint creation of the US and Israel and is blamed for disrupting thousands of Iranian centrifuges in an effort to damage its nuclear program.
He said: “The United States started that cyber war, with attacking our nuclear facilities in a very dangerous, irresponsible way that could’ve killed millions of people.”
He added: “So there is a cyber war … and Iran is engaged in that cyber war.
“But the United any war that the United States starts, it won’t be able to finish.”
The US is already strangling the religious regime with sanctions in a bid to halt the country’s nuclear weapons development.
But genuine fears an all out war have been growing since Iran was proved to be behind the drone and cruise missile attacks on Saudi oil plants, the world’s largest source of fuel, on September 14.
Iran’s president warns the West to ‘stay away’ and unveils long-range missiles that could strike US bases
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