Iran war: What is the strategy behind the US and Israel’s strikes? | World News

POLICE STATIONS HAVE BECOME A KEY TARGET

Professor Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, says that the targeting of police stations in Tehran and in Kurdish areas, as identified by Sky News, shows that the US and Israel are still hoping that Iranians will overthrow their own government.

“It’s about regime change,” he says.

“We don’t think the US and Israel have any intention to put boots on the ground, so there is the expectation [that they will need to] create the conditions for the Iranian people to go back to the streets.”

Tehran has historically been the epicentre of liberal and nationalist opposition to the regime, and was where protests against the government began late last year.

Those protests were met with a lethal crackdown by government forces, including the police.

“Tehran is the centre of power of the Iranian regime – if it collapses, if they can’t control the capital, the assumption is the rest will follow suit,” says Prof Mekelberg.

Kurdish-majority cities like Sanandaj, meanwhile, have long sought greater rights and autonomy from Iran’s central government.

On the first day of the war, the city’s residents greeted the news of Ayatollah Khamenei’s death with public celebration – honking car horns, cheering and blaring music. 

Two days later, on 2 March, the war came to Sanandaj. 

One of the first targets hit, shown in the video above, was the regional headquarters of the Special Units Command – a branch of the Iranian police often tasked with suppressing protests. 

The headquarters of the city’s regular police force also came under attack. 

So too did smaller police stations. The video below, verified by Sky News, shows the moment that a police station in the city centre was hit. 

Footage filmed later in the day shows the station left in ruins. 

The video below shows multiple smoke plumes rising over the city, including from the destruction of yet another police station. 

“One of the ways to instigate and maybe accelerate [regime change] is by dismantling the police and the security forces,” says Prof Mekelberg.

“And that’s what Israel and the US are doing, bombing dozens of police stations.”

Sky News has verified footage of strikes on a total of 12 police stations in Kurdish-majority cities, as well as 17 in Tehran.

The Institute for the Study of War has verified attacks on a further three police stations in Tehran and four in Kurdish areas.