Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times,
A month has passed since U.S. and Israeli forces jointly launched a surprise attack on Iran, delivering the opening blow in an ongoing effort the U.S. military has dubbed Operation Epic Fury.
Iranian forces have since retaliated with attacks on targets across the region and spooked international trade.
President Donald Trump has recently raised the prospect of a peace deal, but his administration is also preparing additional military options.
Here’s where things stand after four weeks of fighting.
Iranian Military, Intelligence, and Political Leaders Killed
The opening U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, on Feb. 28, included decapitation strikes aimed at killing numerous senior Iranian military and political leaders.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 86-year-old Shia Islamist cleric sitting at the pinnacle of leadership in the Iranian regime, was killed in those initial strikes.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of the late ayatollah, has since replaced his father as the supreme leader of Iran. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said the younger Khamenei was likely disfigured in the strikes on the first day of the conflict, but the exact status of the new Iranian leader remains unclear.
A banner depicting the Iranian regime's new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, on March 11, 2026. Khoshiran/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Other senior Iranian leaders killed on the opening day of the conflict included Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Pakpour. Israel’s military reported a senior Iranian intelligence official named Saleh Asadi was also killed in the opening attacks, along with dozens of other senior Iranian military and intelligence leaders.
An Israeli strike killed Ali Larijani on March 17. Larijani was a senior security advisor to the late Khamenei and had previously served as a top international negotiator dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.
On March 26, Israeli forces killed Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s naval component.
Iran’s Forces Battered, Still Fighting
As of March 26, U.S. forces have reported striking more than 10,000 Iranian targets during Operation Epic Fury.
The Israeli military has reported several thousand more strikes on Iranian targets over the past month.
In addition to targeting top Iranian leaders, U.S. and Israeli forces have worked to destroy Iran’s offensive military capabilities.
A group of men inspects the ruins of a police station hit by an air strike in Tehran, Iran, on March 3, 2026. Vahid Salemi/AP
At a March 26 White House cabinet meeting, Hegseth said more than 150 Iranian vessels have been sunk. Those vessels include larger traditional warships as well as numerous smaller vessels capable of laying mines in key regional waterways, such as the Strait of Hormuz.
The joint U.S. and Israeli operations have also sought to drive down the number of Iranian missile and drone attacks.
The Pentagon has said Iran’s missile and drone attacks are down around 90 percent from their peak. Officials have declined to specify how many missiles, drones, or launchers have been destroyed.
Meanwhile, countries around the region are dealing with dozens of drone and missile attacks each day.
Ongoing efforts are also focused on destroying Iran’s military industrial capacity.
A Pentagon official said U.S. operations have “damaged or destroyed over 66% of Iranian missile, drone, and naval production facilities and shipyards.”
Conflict Awakens Iranian Proxy Network
Tehran’s regional partners and proxies have rallied to their side since the start of Operation Epic Fury.
Fighting has intensified along the Israel-Lebanon border over the last month. There, Israeli forces have renewed skirmishes with Hezbollah, a designated terrorist group long considered an ally to Iran’s Shia Islamic leadership.
Israeli forces have reported dozens of strikes and ground raids targeting Hezbollah positions. Israel’s military has also confirmed several of its troops have been killed or wounded in the fighting.
Hezbollah has also launched rocket and drone attacks against Israel.
An Israeli self-propelled howitzer artillery gun fires rounds towards southern Lebanon from a position in the upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border on March 20, 2026. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists launched rockets at Israel after the killing of the Iranian regime's supreme leader. Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images
In Iraq, U.S. forces are fighting with Iranian-aligned militia groups that exist within Iraq’s state-sponsored Popular Mobilization Forces. At a March 19 Pentagon briefing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine reported U.S. airstrikes targeting these Iranian-linked groups.
Yemen’s Houthi movement, another designated terrorist group aligned with Iran, has also threatened to resume attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, as they did in the fall of 2023 and throughout 2024.
Rising Demands on US Forces
Weeks into the Iran conflict, the Pentagon dispatched two separate amphibious ready groups to the Middle East. Each group can consist of up to 5,000 U.S. sailors and Marines, including amphibious landing forces, fighter jets, and troop transport and attack helicopters.
More recently, the Pentagon also dispatched elements of the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, including the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team.
A growing number of U.S. ground troops have been diverted to the region. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the recent troop deployments are just to provide contingency options.
Speaking with reporters as he arrived in France on March 27 for a G7 Foreign Affairs Ministerial meeting, Rubio said the United States is ahead of schedule on its military objectives in the Iran conflict and can complete them without needing ground troops.
“We can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops, but we are always going to be prepared to give the president maximum optionality,” Rubio said.
U.S. Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit conduct a live fire deck shoot aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, in the Philippine Sea on March 16, 2026. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Gerardo Méndez
13 US Military Personnel Killed
Thirteen U.S. military personnel have been killed in operations against Iran since Feb. 28.
Of these, six U.S. soldiers were killed in a single drone strike on a tactical operations center at the Port of Shuaiba in Kuwait on March 1. Another six U.S. airmen were killed when their KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft crashed over western Iraq on March 12.
On March 27, around a dozen U.S. military personnel were injured at the Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. official familiar with the matter told The Epoch Times.
There have been more than 300 U.S. troops wounded in action, according to a U.S. Central Command spokesman. Of that number, 273 have returned to duty.
Three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down in an apparent friendly fire incident early in the conflict.
An F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter was damaged during combat operations over Iran on March 19.
A U.S. official has told The Epoch Times that 10 more unmanned U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones have been shot down in the conflict.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which was dispatched to the region shortly before the conflict began, sustained fire damage on March 12. The carrier subsequently relocated to Greece to undergo maintenance and repairs.
Peace Talks Ongoing, US Leaders Say
At a U.S.-Saudi investment conference in Miami on March 27, Trump’s special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said meetings on the Iran conflict are expected within the week, adding, “We’re certainly hopeful for it.”
Witkoff confirmed during a White House Cabinet meeting on March 26 that he has relayed a 15-point proposal to end the ongoing armed conflict with Iran.
“I can report to you today that we have, along with your foreign policy team, presented a 15-point action list that forms the framework for a peace deal,” Witkoff told Trump.
Witkoff declined to specify the terms of the U.S. proposal, which he said was relayed through Pakistani intermediaries.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, have downplayed any such talks.
In a statement shared by Iranian state media, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had received messages from Washington by way of intermediaries, but said, “this is not considered a negotiation.”
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on after he delivered a speech during a session of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, in Geneva, on Feb. 17, 2026. Valentin Flauraud/AFP via Getty Images
In recent days, Trump has highlighted progress in negotiations with Tehran to end the conflict.
“They say, ‘Oh, we’re not talking’ ... They are begging to work out a deal,” Trump said during the March 26 Cabinet meeting.
Trump also revealed that Iranian leaders had offered permission for 10 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz unharmed as a gesture of goodwill.
In a separate comment on Truth Social on March 26, Trump threatened worsening consequences for Tehran if a deal isn’t reached soon.
“They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is no turning back,” he wrote.
The push to negotiate an end to the fighting comes as Iranian attacks have targeted fuel facilities along the Persian Gulf, as well as commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz—through which around 25 percent of the world’s oceangoing oil and other global commodities pass.
Gas prices in the United States have risen by an average of $1 a gallon since the start of the conflict, as the fighting continues to threaten fuel markets.
Additional Middle East energy sites hang in the balance.
On March 21, Trump issued a 48-hour deadline for Iran to completely reopen the Strait of Hormuz or see its energy sites destroyed. Following Trump’s initial ultimatum, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to completely close down access to the Strait of Hormuz and target energy facilities in Middle Eastern countries that host U.S. forces. They also threatened to attack crucial water desalination facilities operated by those neighboring countries.
Trump has since postponed his strike deadline to April 6.