The Pentagon announced March 10 as the “most intense day” of strikes yet, with American and Israeli forces hitting Iranian military airfields, IRGC headquarters, nuclear facilities, and naval vessels across the country. The total number of Iranian targets struck since the start of the war has now exceeded 5,000, according to President Trump — including drone factories, missile launch infrastructure, and command-and-control centers. Iran’s navy was described by U.S. officials as effectively “eviscerated.” Iranian ballistic missile launches are down by 90 percent from the opening day of the conflict.

A particularly significant development on Day 10 was the targeting and destruction of 16 Iranian mine-laying ships near the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway through which approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. The strikes appeared to be pre-emptive, aimed at preventing Iran from completing the deployment of mines across the strait’s shipping lanes. Despite the strikes, Iran appears to have succeeded in laying at least some mines before the ships were destroyed: by March 11, CENTCOM confirmed the destruction of minelayers while also reporting that a cargo ship had been struck by a projectile in the strait, halting much commercial shipping traffic. Israel also conducted strikes on Iranian facilities during this period, signaling growing confidence in the campaign’s trajectory, while Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE continued intercepting Iranian projectiles aimed at their territory.

Iran succeeded in laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz before all of its mine-laying ships could be destroyed — one of the most consequential single Iranian actions in the conflict to date, directly threatening the global oil supply in the most tangible way possible. By March 11, a cargo ship had been struck by a projectile in the strait, halting much of the remaining commercial shipping traffic that had continued to navigate the waterway. The partial mining of Hormuz represents a significant escalation that strikes directly at the economic interests of the world’s largest oil importers — including China, Japan, South Korea, and India.

Trump warned Iran of “major consequences” if it disrupted energy routes, specifically demanding the immediate removal of any mines placed in the Strait of Hormuz and threatening strikes “twenty times harder” if oil flows were disrupted. The U.S. Navy confirmed its readiness to escort commercial vessels through the strait. Trump also mentioned potential temporary waivers of oil-related sanctions to ease global market pressure — a significant economic tool that could help allied nations secure alternative supplies. From the White House’s official social media accounts, the administration reiterated the mine removal demand in direct terms.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “safe and sound” despite sustaining war injuries, said Yousef Pezeshkian, a government adviser and the son of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, on Wednesday. Posting to his Telegram channel, Pezeshkian wrote that he had heard reports of Khamenei being injured and had personally reached out to contacts with connections to confirm his status.

Iranian state television had itself already signaled the injury, calling Khamenei a “wounded veteran of the Ramadan war” — language that confirms he was hurt but never specified the nature, severity, or timing of the wound. The state broadcaster’s framing — casting an injury as a mark of honour rather than a cause for concern — is consistent with how the Islamic Republic has historically communicated battlefield or attack-related injuries to senior figures.

The disclosure comes amid growing speculation over Khamenei’s health and whereabouts. He has not appeared in public or engaged with the Iranian people since he succeeded his late father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just three days ago — an unusual silence for a new leader taking power in the middle of a national crisis. According to the New York Times, Khamenei was injured on the opening day of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran — February 28 — citing three Iranian and two Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. If accurate, this would mean Mojtaba Khamenei has been governing the Islamic Republic while recovering from combat injuries since the very first hours of the conflict, and was already wounded at the moment the Assembly of Experts convened to select him as Supreme Leader.

The four official voices on Days 10–11 present a carefully coordinated public picture. Trump emphasizes speed and decisive victory, positioning himself as the author of a successful campaign. Hegseth provides operational credibility while hedging on completion — his “degraded but not destroyed” formulation on Day 11 is notably more cautious than prior declarations. Rubio is the most forward-looking, explicitly framing the “next phase” as more severe — suggesting the campaign is not in fact winding down despite Trump’s “very complete” language. Leavitt’s casualty update — 150 wounded, mostly minor — provides the most concrete domestic cost figure yet disclosed.

Iran’s once-potent coalition of militant militias across the Middle East — the network known as the “axis of resistance” — has so far declined to join Tehran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel, Gulf neighbors, or shipping since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28. Most notably, the Yemen-based Houthis, who spent more than a year targeting Red Sea commercial shipping in solidarity with Gaza beginning in late 2023, have not reopened hostilities with the United States or joined Iran’s current campaign — despite warning publicly last week that their “fingers are on the trigger.”

The strategic logic of this restraint is not difficult to identify. The systematic destruction of Iranian military, leadership, and financial infrastructure over eleven days has demonstrated, in the most vivid terms, what happens to actors who are directly in the sights of the U.S.-Israeli air campaign. Iran’s navy no longer has a single operational ship. Its missile capacity is at roughly 10 percent of pre-war levels. Its supreme leader is reportedly recovering from injuries sustained on the opening day of strikes. For proxy forces calculating their own survival, joining the campaign openly would invite the same targeting calculus that has eliminated thousands of Iranian military assets in under two weeks.

The broader axis of resistance — which includes Iraqi militia groups, Hezbollah in Lebanon (already engaged on a separate front), and Palestinian factions — has similarly not escalated to a coordinated multi-front assault on American targets across the region. This restraint stands in notable contrast to the scenario Western planners feared most at the war’s outset: a simultaneous multi-vector attack that would stretch American interception capabilities across the entire theater. For now, that worst-case scenario has not materialized — but the Houthis’ explicit public warning about their trigger fingers, combined with the Red Sea’s elevated strategic importance following the Hormuz partial closure, means the situation remains volatile. A single Houthi decision to resume Red Sea attacks would significantly worsen what is already a severe global energy disruption.