RBC ANALYST HELIMA CROFT ON US-IRAN STRIKES: OIL PRICE IMPACT OF TODAY’S MILITARY ACTION WILL HINGE ON WHETHER IRGC FOLDS IN FACE OF AERIAL ONSLAUGHT
Saturday, February 28, 2026
IRGC names Vahidi new commander-in-chief
Brigadier General Ahmad Vahid was chosen to replace Mohammad Pakpour as commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), it was announced in a statement.
Pakpour was previously pronounced dead, following the latest United States-Israel attacks on the country.
Not too long ago, the IRGC vowed to avenge the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promising to launch "the most formidable offensive operation in the history" against the US and Israel soon.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/IRGC-names-Vahidi-new-commander-in-chief/65768993
Trump offers Khamenei’s backers immunity now — or ‘only’ death later
President Trump on Saturday offered the remaining Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the chance for “immunity” after a joint US-Israeli military operation wiped out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top Iranian leaders.
Trump said the ayatollah’s supporters should back down now — or else they’d suffer grave consequences later.
“We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us,” Trump said in a social media post. “As I said last night, ‘Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!'”
Trump called the killing of Khamenei “justice.”
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump went on to say Khamenei, who ruled Iran for over 36 years, couldn’t avoid American missiles.
“There was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do,” he wrote, adding: “This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”
He urged the country’s military and secret police to work with the “patriots” to bring Iran together. And he warned the bombing will continue.
“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”
hamenei’s heavily fortified compound was destroyed in the bombing campaign. Around 40 top Iranian defense officials were also killed, according to Fox News.
Senior administration officials said Iran posed an “intolerable risk” to the US with its missile threat and, during negotiations, wouldn’t accept “free nuclear fuel forever” –- all of which led up to Saturday’s attack on Tehran.
The US had “indicators” that Tehran was going to launch a preemptive strike against American assets in the region. A US official pointed to Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases in the region, including ones in Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as evidence of the risk.
“The president decided he was not going to sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks from conventional missiles. We had analysis that basically told us, if we sat back and waited to get hit first, the amount of casualties and damage would be substantially higher than if we acted in a preemptive, defensive way to prevent those launches from occurring,” the official said.
Another senior administration official described the final talks with Iranian officials and revealed the astonishing offer the Americans made.
“One of the things we offered – we said, we will give you free nuclear fuel forever,” the official said. “And they basically said that didn’t work for them. They needed to enrich uranium.”
The Trump administration said Iran’s nuclear capabilities were destroyed in Operation Midnight Hammer last year, but were concerned that Tehran was preparing to ramp them up again.
That fear is one of the reasons the bombing will continue throughout the week.
Trump told Axios that he has options: “I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days.”
The president’s MAGA base will likely not tolerate a drawn conflict. European leaders also have expressed their concern about the stability of the Middle East.
Trump, however, sounded confident that no matter how long the bombing continued, Iran was being neutralized as a threat.
“In any case, it will take them several years to recover from this attack,” he said.
Iran said to have targeted CIA HQs in Dubai
Iranian media outlets reported that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters has been targeted in Iran's strikes on Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The report remains unverified, however. Earlier on Saturday, Iran repeatedly attacked US assets in the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the region.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Iran-said-to-have-targeted-CIA-HQs-in-Dubai/65768980
Iran vows massive attacks on US, Israel soon
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it would launch the most offensive military operation in its history against Israel and US bases in the Middle East. The threat follows the official confirmation from Tehran of the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes on Saturday.
"The most formidable offensive operation in the history of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will begin within moments toward the occupied territories and the bases of the American terrorists," the organization warned.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Iran-vows-massive-attacks-on-US-Israel-soon/65768981
Attacks against NYPD officers rise in Mamdani’s first 2 months, cops irate over mayor’s insulting attitude
Assaults against cops are snowballing.
Attacks against NYPD officers are up 3% in the first two months of the Mamdani administration when compared to the same period last year – and cops are fuming that his insulting attitude toward police is putting targets on their badges.
There have been 253 assaults on NYPD officers so far this year, counting the two cops pelted by snowballs and ice in Washington Square Park on Monday, according to NYPD data.
“The criminals and even some people who are sitting on the fence take their cues from the politicians and the prosecutors,” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“They can say ‘I assaulted a cop and [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg won’t prosecute me,'” he said. “‘I got the mayor advocating for me.’ So this is this is a golden opportunity. It’s going to be a long, hot summer is my prediction.”
There were no arrests during the incident in the famed Greenwich Village park.
Mamdani then repeatedly shrugged off the melee as a “snowball fight” and kids fooling around — but experts, cops and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch clapped back.
“A snowball fight is when you throw a snowball at me and I throw a snowball at you,” said Chris Herrmann, a retired NYPD officer and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“It’s not a snowball fight. It’s cops being attacked with snowballs.”
Some of the snowballs were the size of boulders, and many of the marauders were grown men, video shows.
Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was eventually arrested and charged with felony assault, but Bragg threw out the assault charge. He was charged with harassment and obstruction of governmental administration — a lowly violation and misdemeanor, respectively.
The YouTube star had a prior arrest earlier in the month for an attempted robbery in the Brooklyn subway that he said was a prank he was filming for social media.
Tisch said Friday she “will not tolerate any attacks on my cops — period” during a promotion ceremony at One Police Plaza.
A police officer with more than two decades on the job said he and his coworkers are disgusted with Mamdani’s comments.
“He’s always told us that he doesn’t like us,” said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous because he’s not permitted to speak to the media. “Now he’s showing us that he doesn’t like us.”
Another veteran police officer said the people who attacked the officers were clearly out to hurt them.
“This was an ambush,” the officer said.
The frozen fracas is just the tip of the iceberg, critics said.
Mamdani, who has called for defunding the police in the past, posted on Twitter that cops were “racist,” “anti-queer,” “wicked,” and a “major threat to public safety” during the BLM riots of 2020.
He stopped his blatant anti-police rhetoric during the run-up to the 2025 mayoral election, but some police unions were angered over his support of a man who was shot after lunging at police officers with a knife in January.
The mayor visited Jabez Chakraborty in the hospital and said he shouldn’t face charges. Chakraborty, who is schizophrenic, was eventually indicted on attempted assault and weapons possession and held on $50,000 cash bail.
Recent high-profile assaults against NYPD officers included a scrum with migrant Tren de Aragua-linked punks in Times Square in May. In July, a female officer’s arm was bitten by a loon she was trying to arrest in the Flatiron District.
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said the increasing assaults “show why it’s dangerous for the mayor to downplay an attack on police officers.
“Assaults on our members have gone up because those who target police officers are becoming bolder and bolder,” the union boss said. “They don’t believe they’ll face any consequences. The environment isn’t going to change until the justice system and every leader in this city starts backing us up.”
Policing expert Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective and adjunct professor at John Jay, said criminals “feel like they’re not going to get prosecuted.
“It’s the revolving door policy,” he said. “This guy, he’s charged with [obstructing governmental administration] and he’s out the next day. That sends the wrong message.”
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