{"id":6644,"date":"2026-03-05T13:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/the-d-brief-us-israel-strikes-continue-hormuz-closed-4-us-dead-idd-sof-join-ecuador-drug-ops-and-a-bit-more\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:38:13","slug":"the-d-brief-us-israel-strikes-continue-hormuz-closed-4-us-dead-idd-sof-join-ecuador-drug-ops-and-a-bit-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/the-d-brief-us-israel-strikes-continue-hormuz-closed-4-us-dead-idd-sof-join-ecuador-drug-ops-and-a-bit-more\/","title":{"rendered":"The D Brief: US-Israel strikes continue; Hormuz closed; 4 US dead, ID\u2019d; SOF join Ecuador drug ops; And a bit more."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>US-Israeli war on Iran, day 5:\u00a0The global economy is still slipping as the war proceeds against Iran,<\/strong> with oil tankers stuck in the Strait of Hormuz as markets in Asia are getting hit particularly hard today. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. to underwrite risk insurance for commercial vessels transiting the Middle East, where many firms have changed course and routed tankers away from the conflict at increased cost.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Latest: NATO air defenses downed an Iranian ballistic missile headed for Turkey, <\/em><\/strong>Ankara\u2019s defense ministry announced on Twitter Wednesday. It\u2019s unclear just yet what shot down the missile. France on Tuesday ordered its aircraft carrier from the Baltics to the Mediterranean Sea, citing a drone strike Monday on a British air force base in Cyprus. The Associated Press has more.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>New: A U.S. Navy submarine sank an Iranian warship with a torpedo in the Indian Ocean,<\/em><\/strong> Sri Lankan officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Nearly three dozen people were rescued from that incident, and at least 80 people died in that attack, the wire service reported a few hours later. Pentagon officials confirmed the sinking of the warship, saying it was the first for an American submarine since World War II.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The warship is among <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>20 Iranian vessels<\/em><\/strong><strong><em> the U.S. military says it has sunk as of Wednesday morning Eastern time<\/em><\/strong>. The BBC verified 11 of those sunken vessels in satellite imagery, reporting Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Developing: Trump is considering ordering the U.S. Navy to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz<\/em><\/strong> in order to \u201censure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD,\u201d he announced Tuesday on social media. The insurance and naval-escort plans followed a meeting with his treasury and energy secretaries Tuesday at the White House. \u201cU.S. support for tanker insurance is not unprecedented,\u201d Reuters explained Tuesday. \u201cAfter the September 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. issued insurance policies to keep shipping moving amid elevated \u200bwar-risk premiums,\u201d and \u201cDuring \u200bthe Iran-Iraq conflict in the s, Washington reflagged tankers \u2060and provided naval escorts when private insurers withdrew coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>But some experts doubt this plan will have a large impact.<\/em><\/strong> \u201cGiven concerns about the safety of crews and vessels moving through the Strait,\u201d Evercore analysts wrote in a note Tuesday, Trump\u2019s plan \u201cwill likely not be sufficient to meaningfully increase traffic\u201d at least in part because \u201cthe heavy use of drones and potential for sea mines have changed the calculus for many.\u201d (h\/t Carl Quintanilla of CNBC)<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Coverage continues below\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief,<\/strong> a newsletter focused on developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. It\u2019s more important than ever to stay informed, so we\u2019d like to take a moment to thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you\u2019re not already subscribed, you can do that here. <strong><em>On this day in 2002, <\/em><\/strong>U.S. special operators fought the Battle of Roberts Ridge, one of the fiercest engagements of the war in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update: Four of the six American service members killed so far have been identified<\/strong> by the Defense Department. \u201cAll soldiers were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, Des Moines, Iowa,\u201d officials said in a statement Tuesday. They include:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Fla.;\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb.;\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn.;\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>The four perished on March 1 when a drone struck their makeshift facility<\/em><\/strong> in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, roughly a dozen miles south of the large U.S. base at Camp Arifjan, as CBS News reported Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Sgt. 1st Class Amor \u201cwas just a few days away from coming home<\/em><\/strong> to her husband and two children when she was killed,\u201d the Associated Press reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cAmor was moved off-base to a shipping container-style building a week before the drone attack. The building had no defenses,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> her husband told AP. \u201cThey were dispersing because they were in fear that the base they were on was going to get attacked and they felt it was safer in smaller groups\u00a0 in separate places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Expert reax: \u201cNo reason to have a makeshift operations center in a war where you determine D-day,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. \u201cThose service members would still be alive if there had been a basic effort by their leaders at hardening\/passive defense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Contrasting solemnity:<\/em><\/strong> Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine opened his remarks Wednesday before reporters saying, \u201cFirst, it&#8217;s with profound sadness and gratitude that I share the names of four of our six fallen heroes.\u201d Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, on the other hand, began by asserting, \u201cAmerica is winning\u2014decisively, devastatingly and without mercy. Under the direct command of President Trump\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Hegseth also promised to begin using \u201c500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS-and-laser-guided precision gravity bombs,<\/em><\/strong> which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile,\u201d he told reporters Wednesday. \u201cMore bombers, fighters are arriving just today,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>He also promised \u201cin under a week, the two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> That\u2019s a notably different picture from what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent painted when he told CNBC Wednesday morning, \u201cEverything is going magnificently. The execution of Epic Fury is proceeding and doing better than planned. I believe last night we took full control of the Iranian skies, along with the Israeli air force. So the two most powerful air forces in the world now have complete control of the Iranian sky.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Defense One\u2019s <\/em>Meghann Myers has more from Hegseth\u2019s press conference, including some numbers of targets hit and missiles fired, here.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Developing: Many U.S. troops were told Trump\u2019s Iran war is for \u201cArmageddon\u201d and the return of Jesus,<\/em><\/strong> which would seem to violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to a flood of complaints from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, journalist Jonathan Larson reported Monday, citing data from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>According to one of the complaints,<\/em><\/strong> their commander \u201curged us to tell our troops that this was \u2018all part of God\u2019s divine plan\u2019 and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>One related problem for troops:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cIf you\u2019re being proselytized to by your superior, you can\u2019t say, \u2018Get out of my face.\u2019 Under the military\u2019s criminal code of justice, insubordination is considered a felony,\u201d Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of MRFF, told HuffPost on Tuesday. Read more from Larson\u2019s initial reporting, here.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The CIA\u2019s station in Riyadh was allegedly hit in a drone attack Monday,<\/strong> the <em>Washington Post <\/em>reports. The attack caused \u201cstructural damage\u201d and \u201ccollapsed\u201d part of the embassy\u2019s roof, according to a State Department alert obtained by <em>WaPo<\/em>, which added, \u201cNo CIA personnel were wounded,\u201d and embassy personnel are sheltering in place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The U.S. consulate in Dubai was struck Tuesday and temporarily erupted in flames,<\/em><\/strong> CNN reported. \u201cVideos geolocated and verified by CNN show a black plume of smoke rising over the consulate building, visible from a considerable distance.\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed a drone hit the \u201cparking lot adjacent to the chancellery building,\u201d but everyone was accounted for afterward.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>For Americans stranded in the Middle East,<\/em><\/strong> Trump wrote a social media post Tuesday promoting the State Department\u2019s evacuation planning and coordination website. \u201cWe are already chartering flights, free of charge, and booking commercial options, which we expect will become increasingly available as time goes on,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Trump was asked Tuesday, \u201cWhy wasn\u2019t there an evacuation plan?\u201d <\/em><\/strong>He replied, \u201cBecause it happened all very quickly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related reading:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cDubai evacuation costs rise as high as $250,000 as more families flee,\u201d the <em>Financial Times <\/em>reported Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The U.S. military base al-Udeid, in Qatar, was hit with a ballistic missile Tuesday,<\/strong> Qatar\u2019s defense ministry confirmed in a statement. The attack didn\u2019t cause any casualties, the officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Alert: Iran managed to strike the largest radar operated by the U.S. in the Middle East, located in Qatar:<\/em><\/strong> Space Force\u2019s AN\/FPS-132 Ballistic Missile Early Warning Radar System, which has an estimated cost of around $1 billion. Sam Lair of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies shared satellite imagery from Planet of the strike\u2019s aftermath, noting, \u201cIt\u2019s unclear how extensive the damage is,\u201d however, \u201cDebris from the damaged face has fallen on the roof of the main building and there is water runoff from the firefighting effort.\u201d (To see more damage from the ongoing conflict, Lair is flagging multiple additional locations attacked across Iran, including missile bases and related production facilities.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Rewind:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cTrump Promises to Defend Qatar, a Reassurance After Israel\u2019s Strike,\u201d the <em>New York Times<\/em> reported in October.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Strategic consideration:<\/em><\/strong><strong> <\/strong>Given the great deal of concern in recent years about China\u2019s missile stocks, and the associated threats those missiles pose to naval forces, officials in Beijing may be \u201clooking at Iran&#8217;s failure to achieve political objectives via missile coercion and rethinking some assumptions\/discussions they&#8217;ve been having about their war planning,\u201d observed analyst Decker Eveleth, writing Tuesday on social media. (One particularly notable difference, of course, is China\u2019s known nuclear stockpile compared to Iran\u2019s reported lack of a single nuclear weapon.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trump\u2019s CIA is reportedly banking on Kurdish forces to \u201cspark an uprising in Iran\u201d<\/strong> and help topple the country\u2019s leadership, CNN reported Tuesday. (Reuters had similar reporting a bit later.) \u201cIranian Kurdish armed groups have thousands of forces operating along the Iraq-Iran border,\u201d and \u201care expected to take part in a ground operation in Western Iran, in the coming days,\u201d a senior Iranian Kurdish official told CNN. \u201cThe idea would be for Kurdish armed forces to take on the Iranian security forces and pin them down to make it easier for unarmed Iranians in the major cities to turn out without getting massacred again as they were during unrest in January.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cAnother US official said the Kurds could help sow chaos in the region and stretch the Iranian regime\u2019s military resources thin,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> five journalists for CNN write. \u201cStill other ideas have centered around whether the Kurds could take and hold territory in the northern part of Iran that would create a buffer zone for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Expert reax: \u201cCount me extremely skeptical that this&#8217;ll prove a good idea<\/em><\/strong>\u2014for (a) intra-Kurdish, (b) regional geopolitical and (c) internal Iranian reasons,\u201d Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute wrote Tuesday on social media. He added that \u201cit&#8217;s this policy pillar that&#8217;s generating concern about [likely undeclared] U.S. boots on the ground in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Rewind:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trump lashed out at Spain<\/strong> during a meeting Tuesday at the White House with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. \u201cWe\u2019re going to cut off all trade with Spain,\u201d Trump said after Spain refused use of its airfields for the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cThey said we can\u2019t use their bases. We could use their bases if we want,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Trump alleged Tuesday. \u201cWe could just fly in and use it. Nobody is gonna tell us not to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>AP <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>notes<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>: \u201cIt is unclear how Trump would cut off trade with Spain,<\/em><\/strong> given that Spain is under the umbrella of the European Union. The EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of all 27 member countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The view from Madrid: \u201cWe are not going to be accomplices to something that is bad for the world,<\/em><\/strong> simply because of fear of reprisals from some,\u201d Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said in a televised speech Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s not even clear what the goals are of those who launched the first attack,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Context: \u201cFor Mr. S\u00e1nchez, in office since 2018, an assertion of independence was also a political necessity,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> the <em>New York Times <\/em>reports. \u201cHis anti-Trump positions give his Socialist party a chance to shore up their base and ward off challenges from far-left rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Developing: Cuba may be next in Trump\u2019s sights,<\/strong> if activists in Florida get their way, <em>Politico<\/em> reported Monday. It\u2019s not that far-fetched either, since the <em>Wall Street Journal <\/em>in January reported the Trump administration \u201cis searching for Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime by the end of the year.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cThe president is feeling like, \u2018I\u2019m on a roll\u2019; like, \u2018This is working,\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/strong> an administration official told Vivian Salama of <em>The Atlantic<\/em> on Sunday. However, Salama cautioned, \u201cA Cuba in turmoil could cause an influx of refugees to the United States at a time when the administration is trying to reverse immigration flows. A military campaign might set the stage for a revolt, but there is little organized opposition in the country after almost seven decades of repressive rule.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The White House is threatening Venezuela\u2019s interim leader <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>again<\/em><\/strong> as \u201cFederal prosecutors have put together possible corruption and money laundering charges\u201d against Delcy Rodriguez \u201cunless she continues to comply with Trump\u2019s demands,\u201d Reuters reported Wednesday. \u201cThe probe focuses on Rodriguez\u2019s alleged involvement in laundering of funds from Venezuela\u2019s state oil company PDVSA\u201d between 2021 and 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related reading:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color:#b39602\">Around the Defense Department<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>The U.S. military just carried out a joint operation against alleged drug traffickers in Ecuador,<\/strong> officials at Southern Command announced Tuesday on social media. Special operators are helping plan missions in what the <em>New York Times <\/em>wrote \u201cappeared to be a major expansion of the U.S. military\u2019s unilateral strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific. More, here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Army just launched an open call for industry ideas. <\/strong>\u201cThe Army is looking to stretch its limited research and development dollars by teaming up with private industry to develop projects that can be used by the service as well as commercial customers,\u201d reports <em>Defense One\u2019s<\/em> Myers, here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pentagon\u2019s war on Anthropic based on \u2018dubious\u2019 legal thinking\u2019 and ideology, not real risk,<\/strong> according to legal experts and officials who spoke with <em>Defense One\u2019s <\/em>Patrick Tucker. Read their takes, here.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related reading:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\nif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\nn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\ns.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script',\n'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init', '10155007044873614'); \nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><script>\n  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n    FB.init({\n      appId      : '1546266055584988',\n      autoLogAppEvents : true,\n      xfbml      : true,\n      version    : 'v2.11'\n    });\n  };\n  (function(d, s, id){\n     var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n     if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}\n     js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n     js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n     fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n   }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/threats\/2026\/03\/the-d-brief-march-04-2026\/411875\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US-Israeli war on Iran, day 5:\u00a0The global economy is still slipping as the war proceeds against Iran, with oil tankers stuck in the Strait of Hormuz as markets in Asia are getting hit particularly hard today. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. to underwrite risk insurance for commercial vessels transiting the Middle East,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.defenseone.com\/media\/img\/cd\/2026\/03\/04\/DB_LANDER\/open-graph.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6646,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644\/revisions\/6646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}