The 12 Days That Changed the Course of War in Iran
From drone barrages to strikes on missile launchers, the strategies shaping the conflict reflect experience gained by the US, Israel and Iran in 2025.
A Tehran oil storage facility hit by a US-Israeli strike on March 8.
Photographer: Vahid Salemi/AP PhotoAfter more than a week of strikes, the US and Israel appear to be dismantling Iran’s military machine with startling speed. They’ve hit thousands of targets across the country, degrading missile launchers and command networks and killing senior commanders, as well as more than 1,000 civilians, according to a preliminary count by Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US human-rights group. Iran has kept striking back, launching drones and missiles throughout the region and exposing vulnerabilities in the coalition’s defenses.
In many ways the war unfolding across the Middle East is being fought with insights extracted from the last one. The tactics shaping the conflict—including US and Israeli efforts to paralyze Iran’s launch capabilities, and Tehran’s reliance on swarms of cheap one-way drones—were tested during the brief June 2025 conflict involving all three countries, building on decades of experience by the militaries involved.