Iran - Current Military Actions

Here is a brief and expanding history of the recent U.S./Iranian conflict.

• Feb 23, 2012 -16 US intelligence agencies, indicates that Iran is conducting research that could eventually enable it to develop a nuclear weapon, but that it has not sought to do so.
• Feb 21, 2012 - Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base started the four-day exercises codenamed Tharallah on Monday within an area of 190,000 square kilometers in southern Iran, with the key objective of boosting the country’s air defense near the Persian Gulf and the nation’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
• Feb 21, 2012 - The IAEA declared its latest inspection visit to Iran a failure, with the regime blocking access to a key site suspected of hosting covert nuclear weapon research.
• Feb 20, 2012 - Iran stopped selling crude to British and French companies.
• Feb 19, 2012 - US military officials confirmed Saturday that US drones are flying over Syria.
• Feb 19, 2012 - Syrian forces captured 40 Turkish intelligence operatives working with the “opposition” inside Syria who confessed to working with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to train the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA)
• Feb 19, 2012 - An Iranian destroyer and an escorting supply ship docked yesterday at the Syrian port of Tartus.
• Feb 19, 2012 - Two Republican US Senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, called for arming Syrian “rebels”.
• Feb 19, 2012 - The Egyptian government withdrew its ambassador to Syria.
• Feb 14, 2012 - The US aircraft carrier, USS Lincoln, transitions out of the Persian Gulf while being shadowed by Iranian ships as well as an Iranian drone and surveillance helicopter.
• Feb 13, 2012 - Twin attempts to bomb people affiliated with the Israeli embassies in New Delhi and Tbilisi, Georgia. Israeli blames Iran and cites no evidence.
• Feb 11, 2012 - Brigadier General Issa al-Khouli is assassinated in Syria.
• Feb 9, 2012 - Tanks are sighted in Homs, Syria.
• Feb 9, 2012 - The Independent newspaper based in London, cited “evidence” claiming that Syrian President Assad’s security forces have indiscriminately killed scores of newborn babies in Homs this week.
• Feb 9, 2012 - Attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by MEK, MKO and PMI, Iranian dissident groups that are financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service reports US officials.
• Feb 9, 2012 - Rebel forces report the Syrian army had transferred a significant quantity of grenades and mortars containing chemical agents to a school building in Homs.
• Feb 8, 2012 - Iran is preparing to dispatch 15,000 troops to assist the Syrians.
• Feb 8, 2012 - British and Qatari special operations units are operating with rebel forces under cover in the Syrian city of Homs just 162 kilometers from Damascus
• Feb 7, 2012 - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would visit Damascus with Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov.
• Feb 6, 2012 - An Arab League report points the blame on the Feb 3rd Syrian 'massacre' to armed gangs in Syria.
• Feb, 2012 - Mossad chief Tamir Pardo made a secret visit to officials in the United States.
• Feb 6, 2012 -The US withdraws its Syrian ambassador and shutters its embassy.
• Feb 6, 2012 -US funded Tunisian president prepares to withdraw support of Syrian government
• Feb 5, 2012 - Obama invokes the NDAA, thereby unilaterally declaring war on Iran.
• Feb 5, 2012 -A diplomat based in Islamabad said on Sunday that an Israeli attack on Iran would force Pakistan to support a Iranian response, according to the Israeli website Ynetnews.com
• Feb 4, 2012 - Russians put Rapid Reaction Force (aka Spetsnaz) units in Black Sea bases on the ready to set out for Syria and defend Damascus.
• Feb 4, 2012 - Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council move against Syria
• Feb 3, 2012 - Reports emerge that Syrian troops had shelled  the Homs district of Khaldiyeh, killing an estimated 350 people there and injuring some 1,500.
• Feb 3, 2012 - Israeli facilities in North America -- and around the world -- are on high alert, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News that predicted the threat from Iran against Jewish targets will increase. 
• Feb 3, 2012 - Khamenei..promised that human history is on the verge of a great event and that soon the world will realize the power of Allah.
• Jan 27, 2012 - Iran to pass law halting sales of oil to Europe.
• Jan 24, 2012 - India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar. China is expected to follow suit.
• Jan 23, 2012 - The USS Enterprise is heading to the Persian Gulf region in a direct message to Tehran.
• Jan 23, 2012 - A 43-year-old Iranian military officer, Raze Ali Fimani, was killed when motorcyclists reportedly fired shots at a group of soldiers who were headed to an air force base.
• Jan 23, 2012 - A senior Iranian official said Iran would “definitely” close the Strait of Hormuz if an EU oil embargo disrupted the export of crude oil. (Notice the "if" part of the statement. Iran is basically saying 'Attack us financially and we will respond militarily')
• Jan 23, 2012 - The EU has agreed to freeze the assets of the Iranian central bank and ban all trade in gold and other precious metals with the Iranian Central Bank and other public bodies in Iran.
• Jan 22, 2012 - The USS Abraham Lincoln passed through the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Gulf without incident. In addition, the HMS Argyll, a Type 23 frigate from the Royal Navy, a guided missile cruiser and two destroyers from the US Navy completed the flotilla, along with one warship from the French navy.
• Jan 20, 2012 - The Pentagon admits that a new US commando team is operating near Iran.
• Jan 20, 2012 - The Obama administration is considering closing the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria.
• Jan 19, 2012 -Large armor movements are witnessed in Santa Cruz.
• Jan 18, 2012 - The US aircraft carrier, USS Lincoln, arrives in the Gulf, bringing the total to 3.
• Jan 13, 2012 - Russia has claimed that NATO is preparing to impose a no-fly zone in Syria to protect rebel fighters.
• Jan 12, 2012 - A senior U.S. official said that the latest round of American sanctions are aimed at shutting down Iran’s central bank.
• Jan 12, 2012 - IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz testified in closed session to the Israeli Knesset’s foreign affairs and defense committee that Israel was engaged in sabotaging Iran’s nuclear program through a series of “unnatural” acts
• Jan 12, 2012 - A massive buildup of forces in the area.
• The aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln and CVN 70 Carl Vinson which has arrived by way of Hong Kong are joining the area.
• 9,000 US troops including airmen, missile interceptor teams, marines, technicians and intelligence officers are scheduled to land in Israel in the coming weeks.
• Jan 11, 2012 - Iranian nuclear scientist Prof. Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, deputy director of the first uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, was killed after a magnetic bomb was attached to the side of his car by two men on a motorcycle. (Israeli sources close to Jewish writer Richard Silverstein point to Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) and the Mossad.)
• Jan 10, 2012 - The IAEA- Iranian officials earlier said the Fordo plant, deep inside the mountains near the central Iranian city of Qom, was built to produce 20-percent uranium needed for a research reactor in Tehran, which produces medical isotopes to treat cancer patients. 
• Jan 9, 2012 -  Iran says it will no longer accept the U.S. dollar as payment for its oil shipments to India, Japan and China.
• Jan 9, 2012 - Iran has begun 20% uranium enrichment at a new underground site built to withstand possible airstrikes
• Jan 9, 2012 - Iran has sentenced alleged CIA spy, 28 year old Amir Hekmati, to death. 
• Jan 9, 2012 - The Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov anchored at Syria’s Tartus port along with the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and frigate Yaroslav Mudry.
• Dawoud Rajha was received on the deck by a guard of honor of marines under a flyover of Russian Su-33 and Su-25 fighter-bombers
• Jan 9, 2012 - France consigned an air defense destroyer Forbin to the waters off Tartus”
• Jan 8, 2012 - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says is not yet building a bomb and called for continued diplomatic and economic pressure to persuade Tehran not to take that step.
• Jan 8, 2012 - RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV, took off from the USS Stennis aircraft carrier for for a Broad Aerial Maritime Surveillance Mission (BAMS) over the coasts of Iran.
• Jan 8, 2012 - Ali Ashraf Nouri, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, told Khorasan daily on Sunday that the Iranian government has decided to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf if the country’s oil exports are blocked.
• Jan 8, 2012 - Philip Hammond, the UK's Defence Secretary, warned the regime in Tehran that Britain will not tolerate the ‘very significant consequences’ if it fulfils a threat to block the Strait of Hormuz.
• The HMS Daring is a Type 45 destroyer that has the world’s most sophisticated naval radar is sent to the Gulf.
• French Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is dispatched to the area as well.
• Jan 7, 2012 - Iran launches security exercises on Afghanistan border. Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces, said the "Martyrs of Unity" exercises near Khvat, 60 km (40 miles) from Afghanistan, were "aimed at boosting security along the Iranian borders," Fars reported.
• Jan 6, 2012 - Forces with the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier strike group, the target of Tehran's threat, rescued 13 Iranian fishermen from Somali pirates days after passing through the Strait.
• Jan 6, 2012 - Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, naval commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps announces wargames, The Great Prophet, to coincide with the joint US/Israeli Austere Challenge 12 in February.
• Jan 5, 2012 - Iran via Turkey, announces its willingness to negotiate with the U.S.
• Jan 3, 2012 - Iran threatened to take action if the US aircraft carrier USS Stennis which "moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill returns to the Persian Gulf." Army chief Lt. Gen. Ataolla Salehi said:" Iran will not repeat this warning."
• The USS Bataan and USS Makin Island are also in the Sea of Oman
• Jan 2, 2012 - The Rial was widely reported to be trading down 12% in the black market from Saturday's rate, and Mehr news service reported that housing prices had tumbled 20% during the last few weeks. 
• Jan 2, 2012 - Last days of the 10 day Iranian drills.
• Iran tested its Qader missile, a long-range sea-to-shore missile, and the surface-to-surface Nour missile.  
• Dec 31, 2011 - Obama signs the NDAA into law. It contains sanctions against Iran's oil sales by companies that trade in Iran. (An act of economic and therefore actual war)
• Dec 28, 2011 - The USS Stennis transited the Strait of Hormus and entered the Sea of Oman where Iran was staging a naval drill.
• Dec 24, 2011 - Iran launches 10 day military drills.
• Dec 22, 2011 - Iran announces military drills to be held in the Persian Gulf.
• Dec 21, 2011 - A U.S. missile hit an oil depot in the southwest village of Abadan.
• Two rockets reportedly hit the village of Manyuhi near the border of Iraq’s al-Faw Peninsula near the Persian Gulf and the Iraqi city of Basra.
• “In the border city of Arvand-Kenar, the invading American and British airplanes violated the airspace of the Islamic Republic of Iran three times,” a commander told the Islamic Republic News Agency.
• Dec 19, 2011 - Former CIA and current DOD  head Leon Panetta announces that Iran will have a nuclear weapon within a year and the U.S. will not rule out a military attack.
• Dec 13, 2011 - Iran is reported to have closed the Gulf, oil spikes and the report is soon retracted.
• Dec 12, 2011- Iran unveils footage of the captured US drone. Barrack Obama demands the drone's return, Iran subsequently declares the drone Iran's property.
• Iran said its new Abadan refinery will raise its daily output of high-octane gasoline by almost 12,600 barrels by January 20, 2012.  (The same location is hit by a missile 9 days later)
• Dec 11, 2011 - Blast hits Iranian steel plant in Yazd, killing 7 wounding 12
• Dec 5, 2011 - Iran moves to a war footing.
• Dec 4, 2011 - Failed US UAV drone (RQ-170 Sentinel) overflight, which which is shot down over 140 miles into Iranian territory.  (Of course the US denies it, they deny that they had advanced warning of the bombings on Pearl Harbor until historical truth bites them in the rear end. Also of particular note is the US attacks on Pakistan troops just a few days earlier.) 
• NATO command in Afghanistan released a terse statement Sunday: "The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."
• Dec 2, 2011 - Europe prepares oil import embargoes against Iran. 
• Dec 1, 2011 - The US Senate unanimously passes sanctions against Iran.
• Nov 30, 2011 - UK, Germany, Italy and France all recall their ambassadors from Iran.
• Nov 29, 2011 - Protesters attack the UK embassy in Tehran, Eight UK embassy staff taken hostage.
• Nov 28, 2011 - Explosion in an Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan.
• Multiple eyewitness accounts of the Israeli military moving large missiles into position outside of Jerusalem and in the West Bank
• Nov 28, 2011 - Libya’s transitional ruling authority has agreed to send weapons and fighters over to Syria to help the Free Syrian Army fight government forces. Many of these were the same al-Quaeda fighters from Libya.
• Late Nov - British Special forces have met up with members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the armed wing of the Syrian National Council. The apparent goal of this initial contact was to establish the rebel forces' strength and to pave the way for any future training operations.
• Nov 24, 2011- Iran's intelligence ministry had arrested 12 CIA "spies." The alleged spies were trying to cripple Iran in the nuclear, military and security areas.
• Nov 21, 2011- US names Iran as an area of "primary money laundering concern", a step designed to dissuade non-U.S. banks from dealing with it 
• Nov 12, 2011 - Explosion at an Malard Iranian military base outside Tehran that killed about 30 members of the Revolutionary Guard, including General Hassan Moghaddam, the head of the Iranian missile defense program. (Note - Missile defense, not offense.) It is believed that Israeli Intelligence is responsible. L.A. Times adds the U.S. as the culprit. 
• Nov 8, 2011- IAEA report - Based on documents found on a laptop by MEK and Israel in 2004. The documents stop in 2003.

• Oct 18, 2011 -  UK's decision to freeze $1.6bn of Iranian assets 
• Oct 11, 2011- Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. (A used-car salesman attempted to recruit a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the hit. The man representing himself as a cartel operative turned out to be a paid informant of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).)
• Aug 10, 2011- US attempts to blame Iran for 2 downed Navy Seal helicopters. (No evidence)
• July 2010 - It is believed that the M Star Japanese oil tanker carrying oil from Saudi Arabia was damaged by Revolutionary Guards speedboat from the island of Abu Musa by firing a single missile in the northern outlet of Hormuz.
• June 2011 - The former speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich said that the US should "sabotage" Iran's oil and gas infrastructure as part of its efforts to bring down the government.
• Summer, 2010 - Stuxnet virus
• January 2010 - Assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home.
• 2009 - Green revolution.
• 2008 - Congress funds destabilization efforts against Iran. "a CIA plan that reportedly included a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions, according to ABC News."
• Feb 12, 2008 - Hezbollah mastermind Imad Moughniyeh was killed in Damascus when a bomb planted in the headrest of his car was detonated.
• Early 2008 - Bush administration officials held a meeting recently in the Vice President’s office to discuss ways to provoke a war with Iran. The “meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. ‘The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,’”
• Jan 6, 2008 - Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz,” Pentagon officials said. According to one official, “Five small [Iranian] boats were acting in a very aggressive way… and causing our ships to take evasive maneuvers.”
• Dec 3, 2007 - The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate that concluded with “high confidence” that the Islamic republic halted an effort to develop nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003.
• March, 2007 - America is secretly funding terrorist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear program.
• March 23, 2007 - Iranian naval forces captured 15 British Royal Navy personnel for trespassing into the Iranian territorial waters off Iran-Iraq border coast. (The sailors were released April 4th on compassionate grounds after Iran broadcast their apology for trespassing Iranian territorial waters.)
• July 31, 2006 - Christian Zionists lobby for attacks against Iran.
• June 15, 2006 - Iran and Syria sign a mutual defense pact.
• Wargame rehearsals by the United States and Israel against Iran for at least the last 4 years (2011, 2010, 2009, 2008)

MEMRI (A less then reliable non-profit, possibly Israeli intelligence) disseminates a translation of a speech by Ahmadinejad in which the leader threatened to "wipe Israel off of the map?",. When properly translated, the statement was  'Israel would, because of its own faults, vanish from the pages of history'.

Note: This is a resource and will be updated as needed.