RT.com
29 Mar 2026

The Department of War has yet to acknowledge any new losses or injuries from Tehrans retaliatory strikes

Iran destroyed a $270 million Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS surveillance aircraft in its recent strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, which also damaged several other aircraft and injured at least 12 American troops, according to US media reports and new photos circulating online.

The extent of the damage to the aircraft "likely renders it unrepairable," the Air & Space Forces Magazine wrote, while open-source intelligence analysts described it as a "total loss." The Pentagon has yet to officially confirm the scale of the damage from the reported attack.

Meanwhile, the US Department of War is reportedly drafting plans for weeks of potential ground operations, despite President Donald Trump's repeated claims that Tehran has already lost the month-long war and is begging for a deal.

Several US officials told the Washington Post that any mission would not be a "full-scale invasion," but rather limited raids with potential objectives including the seizure of Kharg Island - a key Iranian oil export hub - or coastal raids near the Strait of Hormuz.

Here are the latest developments:

• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to strike two yet-to-be-named US-Israeli-linked educational facilities in the region unless Washington formally condemns and reins in Israel by 12:00pm Tehran time on Monday, March 30.

• Iran's Foreign Ministry previously accused the US and Israel of "deliberately" erasing the country's scientific foundation and cultural heritage - following the latest strikes on the Isfahan University of Technology and the University of Science and Technology in Tehran.

• Yemen's Houthis have formally entered the war on Saturday, targeting multiple "sensitive Israeli military sites" in an attack timed to align with operations carried out by Iran and Hezbollah.

Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updateshere.

(RT.com)