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U.S. bombs Kharg Island military targets and announces deployment of 2,500 Marines to the region as the war completes two weeks of destruction.
Joe Lauria for Consortium News
Attack on Kharg Island and a Deployment of US Marines
The two major stories of the fourteenth day of the war was a U.S. attack on Iran’s Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf and the deployment of 2,500 U.S. marines to the region perhaps presaging a U.S. ground invasion. Ninety-percent of Iranian oil exports leave from Kharg Island. The U.S. said it hit 90 military targets, including IRGC facilities, naval bases, such as Joshan, airport control towers, and helicopter hangars.
The U.S. said it deliberately avoided hitting the island’s oil installations — attempting to prevent further oil price spiking — and concentrated on the Iranian military installations. Iran vowed to attack oil installations around the Gulf if the U.S. hits Iran’s oil on the island. Donald Trump threatened to do just that if Iran continues blocking the transport of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz.
The second major story was the announcement that 2,500 U.S. marines aboard the U.S.S. Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, are headed to the region. This has raised speculation that the troops will either try to force open the Hormuz Strait or make a landing on Kharg Island.
A much larger force would be needed if the U.S. indeed is planning a land invasion of Iran. There are only 50,000 U.S. troops in the region. Talk of the C.I.A. arming the Kurds to invaded ended when the Kurds said they’d only go in with the support of U.S. troops. An invasion on land in a mountainous country larger than Western Europe with a population of 90 million people looks like a new Vietnam in the making.
A 2009 Rand study said half a million U.S. troops would be needed for the initial phase. And it is estimated that as many as 1.5 million would be required to occupy the country, an almost impossible task.
These are not Saddam Hussein’s troops, many of whom ran away and were shot in the back by the U.S. in 2003 or buried alive in the sand. Iran fought Iraq to a standoff in the 1980s losing as many as 750,000 soldiers. As Iranian Foreign Minister said: “We are waiting for them.”
Israel Plans Major Ground Invasion of Lebanon
Meanwhile, Israel is about to launch a major ground offensive into Lebanon to occupy the country south of the Litani river, according to Axios, which reported. “‘We are going to do what we did in Gaza,’ a senior Israeli official said, referring to the flattening of buildings Israel says Hezbollah uses to store weapons and launch attacks,” Axios said.
“The goal is to take over territory, push Hezbollah’s forces north and away from the border, and dismantle its military positions and weapons depots in the villages,” Axios reported the official as saying.
“When the enemy threatens a ground invasion, we tell him: this is not a threat, but one of the traps you will fall into,” Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said. “Because every advance of a ground invasion allows the resistance fighters to achieve gains and results through close confrontation with the enemy.
Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years, from 1982 to 2000. In the current conflict, 800,000 Lebanese have been displaced and at least 773 people have been killed.
Thousands Brave Bombs in Tehran on al-Quds Day
Iranians filled the streets on Friday in support of Palestine on al-Quds Day and they were greeted by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes nearby. The crowds were unfazed as seen in the video below. The country’s leaders, including the president and foreign minister were in the street with the people.
This is probably the very best explanation of Allahu Akbar ever made and it is also realtime shown and proven in the video with real time US-Israeli bombs literally dropping almost onto the crowd pic.twitter.com/9HKIsrBI8a
— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) March 13, 2026
Joe Lauria
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at joelauria@consortiumnews.com and followed on Twitter @unjoe
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