There are wars that widen and there are wars that widen on the same Wednesday by adding Saudi Arabia as an active participant in combat operations, landing a US projectile on Iranian soil, prompting a top general to warn that American troops’ Instagram posts are giving Iran free battle damage assessment, and producing Iraq canceling its foreign minister’s scheduled meeting with the Saudi crown prince because those strikes just happened on Iraqi territory, and the Iran war has widened in all four of these ways simultaneously before noon.
Saudi Arabia and the United States launched joint strikes overnight on Iran-backed militia sites in eastern Iraq, per CENTCOM’s confirmed statement, in retaliation for more than 30 IRGC-directed drone attacks against American forces and Saudi oil facilities over the previous 72 hours. It was the first time Riyadh publicly acknowledged taking part in combat alongside US forces during the conflict. Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces reported at least 20 members killed and 32 wounded. The militias are formally incorporated into Iraq’s security forces, which means Saudi Arabia and the United States bombed soldiers who are technically part of the Iraqi military, while Iraq’s president condemned the strikes as a violation of the country’s sovereignty, and Iraq’s prime minister canceled his Thursday meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, which had been scheduled before the strikes, by the foreign minister who had just visited the White House and then traveled to Iran to broker peace, and who returned to Iraq to find it had been bombed by the people he met at the White House.
A US projectile struck the northwestern Iranian city of Piranshahr, per Iranian state television confirmed by Fox News this morning, causing no casualties. Iran condemned it. CENTCOM has not addressed it specifically. The war that Trump described as nearing a “massive attack. Bigger than ever before” last week, then paused for a weekend, and has now resumed with Saudi Arabia’s first acknowledged combat role and a US munition landing on Iranian urban ground.
CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper issued a letter to troops this week warning that social media posts from US service members are performing Iran’s battle damage assessment for free. “Video captured from a service member’s Meta glasses was posted on Instagram showing where and how the individual had evacuated to a bunker during an Iranian missile and drone attack,” Cooper wrote. Iran normally cannot tell whether its strikes hit personnel, buildings, or empty ground due to electronic jamming. The Instagram post told them. Troops in Jordan may now have their phones confiscated. The first two US service members killed in the resumed conflict were identified as Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii. Someone filmed their evacuation and posted it, and Cooper wants to make sure nobody does it again.
Eighteen US troops are dead. Saudi Arabia is at war. Iraq is furious. Troops may lose their phones.
When troops are losing their phones because their Instagram posts are helping Iran aim better, what exactly is the information environment?
Sources
Fox News Live: US-Saudi strikes Iraq, Iran war July 29
Raw Story: Data reveals the number of American casualties during a single day of Trump’s Iran war
