It has been sixteen days since the United States’ military launched the airstrike in Baghdad that killed the commander of the IRGC’s Qud Forces, and boy did it leave a mark. Feeling vengeful, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) immediately responded to the US air strike by engaging in a series of missile attacks against Iraqi military bases housing US troops. While the bombs left tantalizing damage to each military base, the United States remarkably announced that not a single US or Coalition serviceperson was killed during Iran’s counter-attack. In fact, reports are showing that the only casualties to stem from the IRGC’s missile barrage were de facto Iranian civilians.
This was especially true on the morning of January 8th when reports emerged that one of the IRGC’s missiles targeted and destroyed a Ukrainian Airlines passenger jet moments after it took off from a Tehran airport. There were a total of 167 passengers and nine crew members who lost their lives on this flight, nearly all of whom were Iranian citizens. While originally claiming that mechanical issues caused the plane to crash, the IRGC admitted days later that it was “human error” that led to the aircraft being struck by one of their Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM). Not only this, Iranian officials also allege that the incident could have been avoided had the United States not sought to “escalate tensions” in the Middle East.
The Iranian regime is struggling to keep their story straight, and it is working vigorously to convince their populace that the United States are to blame for the deaths of their civilians. It is worth noting that since November, an estimated 1,500 civilians were killed by their government in a violent crackdown against protesting dissenters. When you take into account the 176 people killed in in the Ukrainian Airlines atrocity, and the estimated 40 citizens who were killed in a stampede during the IRGC Commander’s funeral procession through Tehran, the Iranian Regime is believed to be directly responsible for the violent deaths of over 1,700 Iranians in a three-month span.
The longstanding crackdowns against citizen dissenters, combined with the Iranian government’s mismanagement during this crisis, has recently sparked another wave of protests against the ruling Islamic extremists: broadcasters of Iran’s state-run media are apologizing publicly for mistakenly spreading Iranian propaganda, Iranian students are choosing to walk around US flags that are painted on the paths of university walkways, and dissenters are taking to the streets to chant “The enemy is not the US, the enemy is the [Islamic Extremist] Regime”.
The people of Iran are beginning to realize who the true aggressors and oppressors are. The US’ escalation of the conflict didn’t kill any innocent Iranians. The Iranian Islamic Extremist Regime’s inability to rationally respond to opposition, however, most certainly did.
We’ll see how the situation continues to unfold in the coming months.