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Erin Cunningham

@erinmcunningham

πŸͺ¬former Mideast editor + correspondent at WashPost, now in DC. Previously: Cairo, Kabul, Gaza, Istanbul, Baghdad.

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Latest posts by Erin Cunningham @erinmcunningham

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Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reache...

β€œIf a U.S. role were to be confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East.” www.reuters.com/world/middle...

06.03.2026 02:38 πŸ‘ 85 πŸ” 44 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 5

There’s been a few other good pieces on this theme the last day or two.That’s because it’s a real thing. There’s a real sense of shock and betrayal which is not like past episodes of grumbling and intra-alliance bargaining.

05.03.2026 21:45 πŸ‘ 46 πŸ” 21 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2
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Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base

Official statements placing U.S. forces in the area – along w/ analysis of social posts, videos, sat. images – suggest U.S. forces bombed a school in Minab, Iran during strikes targeting an IRGC base. Over 150 were killed, Iranian officials say. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/w...

05.03.2026 20:52 πŸ‘ 372 πŸ” 209 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 25
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Iran school and nearby military base struck multiple times, satellite image reveals Iranian authorities say the attack, which took place on Saturday, killed 168 people.

BBC Verify has pieced together verified videos, satellite imagery and expert views after a deadly attack near a primary school in Minab, souther Iran, which suggest the area was hit more than once "by multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes".

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

05.03.2026 19:14 πŸ‘ 499 πŸ” 338 πŸ’¬ 13 πŸ“Œ 27

APNewsAlert: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) β€” Bahrain says an Iranian missile hit a state-run oil refinery.

05.03.2026 16:39 πŸ‘ 234 πŸ” 82 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 21
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Live updates: Iran attacks Israel and US bases as Israel strikes Hezbollah-linked targets in Lebanon Iran launched a new wave of attacks Thursday at Israel, American bases and countries around the region, calling for β€œTrump's blood,” while Israel said it hit multiple targets in Iran.

U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon say they have seen and heard clashes, including ground combat, in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces have moved across the border. apnews.com/live/iran-wa...

05.03.2026 14:11 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Corporate Media Buries Story of US and Israel Killing 168 in Girls School Attack No front-page stories in NYT, WSJ, WaPo. No mention on NBC and CBS Sunday Shows. No stand alone segments on Evening News shows. A death count on par with the OKC bombing is relegated to the back page.

β€œJust another faceless three-digit number of Muslim children extinguished from existence and relegated to A11...” www.columnblog.com/p/corporate-...

05.03.2026 03:08 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Airstrike kills Iran-aligned militia commander south of Baghdad – police sources A ​commander from β€ŒIslamic Resistance in Iraq, ​an ​umbrella group of ⁠Iran-backed ​armed factions, ​was killed in an airstrike ​on ​Wednesday, police sources β€Œsaid.

Airstrike kills Iran-aligned militia commander south of Baghdad – police sources reut.rs/4l8FU4N

04.03.2026 23:40 πŸ‘ 37 πŸ” 30 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 20
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Kurdish dissident groups say they are preparing to join the fight against Iran with US support Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq are preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran, and the U.S. has asked Iraqi Kurds to support them, Kurdish officials hav...

AP: In a phone call with Iraqi Kurdish officials late Sunday, Trump asked them to militarily support Iranian Kurdish groups in operations in Iran and to open the border to allow the the groups to move freely back and forth. apnews.com/article/kurd...

05.03.2026 01:24 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Meanwhile… β€œThe White House just posted a video mixing real footage from the Iran strikes with a kill streak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3”

04.03.2026 23:25 πŸ‘ 51 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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No Help and Few Options for Travelers Stranded by Mideast Conflict

One woman who called the State Department helpline looking for help said they told her to "stop ranting and raving" and hung up on her.

Another woman said they asked her how to spell Oman.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/t...

04.03.2026 22:37 πŸ‘ 5529 πŸ” 2172 πŸ’¬ 197 πŸ“Œ 227
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A power blackout has hit all of Iraq’s provinces, according to the electricity ministry.

The government has blamed a technical fault, caused by a sudden drop in gas supplies to the Rumaila gas-fired power plant in Basra.

04.03.2026 20:45 πŸ‘ 108 πŸ” 57 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 5
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Live updates: Hegseth says US submarine sank Iranian warship with torpedo in international waters As the Iran war persists, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a U.S. submarine had sunk an Iranian warship, the first such attack on an enemy since World War II.

Power outage hits all of Iraq, electricity ministry says, after a key gas field in the Kurdish region halted operations due to security concerns, and production stopped at another major oil field near Basra because of a tanker shortage in the Persian Gulf. apnews.com/live/iran-wa...

04.03.2026 18:38 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Trump & Hegseth have, in the run-up to this war, taken a sledge-hammer to the teams inside the U.S. military that were focused on limiting civilian casualties in combat & investigating potential war crimes: www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

04.03.2026 17:49 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 23 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

Iran has now partially blinded key radar systems the US & the Gulf States rely on for missile defense. Qatar's Ministry of Defense just confirmed destruction of the $1.1 billion US-operated AN/FPS-132 Block 5 Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) which gives early warning of ballistic missile launches

04.03.2026 12:43 πŸ‘ 89 πŸ” 49 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 12
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Sri Lanka recovers 87 bodies from Iranian warship sunk off its coast by a US submarine Sri Lanka’s navy has recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people after an Iranian warship was sunk by a U.S. submarine in international waters near the island. U.S.

Sri Lanka recovers 87 bodies from Iranian warship sunk off its coast by a U.S. submarine β€” an apparently unprovoked attack that Pete Hegseth referred to as "quiet death," saying the ship "thought it was safe in international waters” when U.S. forces hit it with a torpedo. apnews.com/article/sri-...

04.03.2026 15:56 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Our New Iran Correspondent | The New York Times Company

Amazing hire for @nytimes.com (and a world-class fumble for the Post) - @yjtorbati.bsky.social is everything a journalist should be. So thrilled to keep reading her work www.nytco.com/press/our-ne...

04.03.2026 14:22 πŸ‘ 172 πŸ” 26 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 0
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Turkey says NATO defences destroyed incoming missile from Iran Turkey said β€Œthat NATO air defences destroyed a ballistic missile fired from Iran as it headed into Turkish airspace on Wednesday, marking the first time the alliance member has been drawn into the expanding Middle East conflict.

Turkey says NATO defences destroyed incoming missile from Iran reut.rs/4u9Sox5

04.03.2026 13:50 πŸ‘ 33 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 9
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At least four killed in Israeli strike on building in Lebanon's Baalbek An Israeli strike on a four-storey residential building has killed at ​least four people and wounded six others in the β€Œeastern Lebanese city of Baalbek with rescue teams working to pull families from beneath the rubble, state news agency NNA said on Wednesday.

At least four killed in Israeli strike on building in Lebanon's Baalbek reut.rs/3OKGfi4

04.03.2026 04:01 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 16 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Son Emerges as Leading Choice to Be His Successor

It appears we may have replaced Ayatollah Khamenei with Ayatollah Khamenei

03.03.2026 23:32 πŸ‘ 3778 πŸ” 964 πŸ’¬ 432 πŸ“Œ 676

This should end well.

03.03.2026 22:33 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Google’s β€œAI Overviews” Supercharge Iran Hoaxes Prompted with reverse-image searches, Google’s AI summaries falsely identify fabricated and misleading visuals as authentic, NewsGuard found.

In the fog of war, Google fools itself: Its reverse-image tool, Lens, can’t reliably spot AI-generated or misleading visuals β€” and its AI Overviews end up repeating the hoaxes.

More in Reality Check: www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/googles-ai...

03.03.2026 22:21 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

So, in launching a huge bombing campaign on Iran they apparently didn't plan for:

- Who takes over;
- Interceptor shortages from sustained drone retaliation;
- How to defend US bases in the region;
- Threats to ships in the Strait of Hormuz; and
- How to evacuate Americans with airspace closed.

03.03.2026 21:13 πŸ‘ 11121 πŸ” 3463 πŸ’¬ 610 πŸ“Œ 356
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Thousands in Iran attend burial of children killed in bombing of school. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/w...

03.03.2026 21:50 πŸ‘ 255 πŸ” 116 πŸ’¬ 19 πŸ“Œ 15

All I can think about is Jeff Bezos saying that he slashed jobs at the Washington Post β€” including those of foreign correspondents in the Middle East β€” based on "the data," and a few weeks later a whole war breaks out in the Middle East that these laid off folks would have covered as true experts.

03.03.2026 19:12 πŸ‘ 5787 πŸ” 1298 πŸ’¬ 129 πŸ“Œ 58

Breaking - US consulate in Dubai has been hit and is on fire
@cnn.com

03.03.2026 19:47 πŸ‘ 977 πŸ” 326 πŸ’¬ 93 πŸ“Œ 130
UNHCR mobilizing across region as Middle East crisis escalates | UNHCR GENEVA – Staff at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, are mobilizing from Iran and Afghanistan to Lebanon and Syria to support people forced to flee their homes as the regional crisis intensifies.Many affected countries already host millions of refugees and internally displaced people. Given its footprint in the region, UNHCR is ready to play a leading role in the emergency responses.

The UN refugee agency is mobilizing across the Middle East region and is urging all countries to keep their borders open for those fleeing www.unhcr.org/news/briefin...

03.03.2026 16:37 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

As I watch footage of explosions in Beirut and dust clouds towering above apartment blocks in Tehran, I keep coming back to something that I witnessed back in the summer of '04, during my first tour in Iraq. But first, let's start with a question:

Have you ever heard someone wail?

1/

03.03.2026 13:12 πŸ‘ 142 πŸ” 84 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 30
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Iran human rights group HRANA:

"The total number of reported civilian deaths stands at 742, including 176 children under 18, with 624 reported deaths currently . under review"

"Reported civilian injuries since 28 February 2026 stand at 971, including 115 children"

www.en-hrana.org/the-third-da...

03.03.2026 02:03 πŸ‘ 37 πŸ” 42 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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Trump’s Case for War With Iran Faces Growing Scrutiny U.S. intelligence showed threats from Iran loomed, as they had for years. But they were not imminent.

"U.S. officials and lawmakers with access to classified information ... say the administration’s assertions are incomplete, unsubstantiated, or flat-out wrong."

- Wall Street Journal

03.03.2026 02:04 πŸ‘ 2000 πŸ” 734 πŸ’¬ 92 πŸ“Œ 53