The Israeli military’s latest wave of airstrikes in Iran dealt a serious blow to the country’s brutal internal security apparatus, opening the door for a potential uprising.

During the strikes, Israel «dropped dozens of munitions on the Basij and internal security command centers that are subject to the Iranian terror regime,» the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Wednesday. «The targeted command centers were used by the Iranian regime to maintain control throughout Iran and maintain the regime’s situational assessments.»

Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. has hit nearly 2,000 targets as it carries out a sweeping military campaign aimed at dismantling the regime’s security apparatus and neutralizing threats. Adm. Brad Cooper of U.S. Central Command confirmed the number of targets hit in a video message.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij militia, Iran’s volunteer paramilitary force, were behind the violent crackdown on protesters in January. The bloody crackdown saw regime actors firing on crowds and conducting mass arrests of Iranian protesters. Some had seen the protests as a sign that regime change in Iran was getting nearer, though it did not occur.

Israeli and U.S. officials have hinted at the possibility of regime change in Iran as both countries take aim at Tehran’s military and security sites.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message announcing the launch of Operation Epic Fury, which Israel calls Operation Rising Lion, that it was time for Iranians «to rid themselves of the yoke of tyranny.» Similarly, President Donald Trump said in a message to the Iranian people on Feb. 28 that «the hour of your freedom is at hand.»

«When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations,» Trump said.

Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran on March 3, 2026, after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, 2026. (Negar/Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

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«America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass,» the president added.

Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, told The Wall Street Journal that the path to regime change through foreign airstrikes and popular uprising on the ground has «a bet that rests on no clear historical model.» Vaez also warned that the idea «ignores the resilience of entrenched authoritarian systems like the Islamic Republic.»

The IDF said on Monday that Israel had hit headquarters, bases and regional command centers that belonged to the regime’s internal security apparatus.

«These bodies were responsible for, among other things, suppressing protests against the regime through violent measures and civilian arrests,» the IDF said.

A group of men inspects the ruins of a police station struck amid the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

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It is unclear who will lead Iran after the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the operation. Since then, Israel and the U.S. have made it clear that regime leaders chosen to replace him would be targets. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Wednesday that anyone chosen to replace Khamenei would be considered «a target for elimination» if they continued to threaten Israel, the U.S. and regional allies.

The killing of key leaders might not be enough to cause an uprising, as the regime has a monopoly on weapons in most of Iran, the WSJ reported, adding that Basij militants are still patrolling the streets.

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

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Justice Neil Gorsuch spent a portion of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments this week exploring what a «habitual drunkard» is as part of a case centered on whether a drug user is allowed to own a gun.

Gorsuch questioned a Department of Justice lawyer on how gun restrictions for habitual drunkards in early American history compared to today’s law restricting drug users from owning guns. The DOJ was required to point to a strong historical comparison to prove the modern law was constitutional, and it chose to use the founding-era laws about habitual drunkards.

«The American Temperance Society, back in the day, said eight shots of whiskey a day only made you an occasional drunkard,» Gorsuch said.

A habitual drunkard, Gorsuch said, had to «double that.»

The conservative justice pointed to the Founding Fathers’ drinking habits to convey his skepticism about the DOJ’s argument that a habitual drunkard was similar to a modern-day drug user and that both were worthy of being disarmed. 

«John Adams took a tankard of hard cider with his breakfast every day. James Madison reportedly drank a pint of whiskey every day. Thomas Jefferson said he wasn’t much of a user of alcohol. He only had three or four glasses of wine a night,» Gorsuch said.

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«Are they habitual drunkards who would be properly disarmed for life under your theory?» Gorsuch said.

The case, U.S. v. Hemani, centered on a Texas man who had been charged after the FBI discovered he possessed a handgun and smoked marijuana every other day. The law at issue, 922(g)(3), gained national attention after President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was convicted under it for possessing a gun in 2018 while addicted to crack cocaine.

Hunter Biden (C), son of President Joe Biden, arrives at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware, on October 3, 2023. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

«We don’t even know the quantity of how much he uses every other day. What if he took one gummy bear with a medical prescription in Colorado?» Gorsuch asked. «Let’s say he had one to help him sleep every other day. Disarm him for life?»

The DOJ argued the man, Ali Hemani, illegally owned the gun while a habitual user of marijuana and that he was rightly charged for it. Second Amendment advocates are closely watching the case. The National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America are supporting Hemani, while several Democratic states are backing the DOJ in the case, setting up strange alliances in a test of what exceptions to gun ownership are allowed by law.

An attorney for Hemani argued to the Supreme Court that the DOJ could not adequately define what a habitual drug user was.

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The Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a Tennessee law banning transgender medical procedures for adolescents in the state is not discriminatory, ruling 6-3 to uphold the law. (AP/Jon Elswick)

«The only historical tradition it has offered is one of imposing restrictions on habitual drunkards,» the lawyer said. «That entire line of argument rests on a category mistake because the laws to which the government points applied only to habitual drunkards, not to habitual drinkers.»

The DOJ, meanwhile, downplayed the implications of the law, saying in court papers that it would impose only a «limited, inherently temporary» restriction on a drug user that the person could remove by curtailing drug use.

«This restriction provides a modest, modern analogue of much harsher founding-era restrictions on habitual drunkards, and so it stands solidly within our Nation’s history and tradition of regulation,» DOJ lawyers wrote. «And habitual illegal drug users with firearms present unique dangers to society—especially because they pose a grave risk of armed, hostile encounters with police officers while impaired.»

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Gorsuch was among several justices to express skepticism of the DOJ’s argument, though the justices could keep their ruling narrow and only address Hemani’s case.

The high court is expected to issue a decision by the summer.

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report.

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Israel’s military said Wednesday that one of its F-35I «Adir» stealth fighter jets shot down an Iranian Air Force Yak-130, marking the first time the advanced aircraft has downed a manned fighter in combat. 

«The historic shootdown over the Tehran skies is a testament to the strength of the Israeli Air Force and to your personal determination,» said Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, the commander of the Israeli air force. 

«The war continues – return home safely. Get some rest,» he told the pilots. «The next mission is already waiting for you.»

The F-35I is Israel’s customized version of the U.S.-made F-35 Lightning II, a fifth-generation stealth fighter that anchors the country’s air fleet.

According to the F-35 program’s official website, Israel became the first country to select the aircraft through the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales process, signing a letter of agreement in October 2010. 

The site says the Israeli air force gave the jet the Hebrew name «Adir,» meaning «Mighty One,» and received its first F-35 on June 22, 2016.

The Yak-130 is a Russian-made, two-seat combat training aircraft designed by the Yakovlev Design Bureau, according to United Aircraft Corporation, the state-owned Russian aerospace company that manufactures the jet.

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A Russian-made Yak-130 subsonic two-seat advanced jet trainer and light attack aircraft maneuvers during a flying display on the third day of the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, England, on July 11, 2012. (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

It made its maiden flight in 1996 and is currently in active production.

Iran’s air force received its first Yak-130 training aircraft in September 2023, according to Press TV, Iran’s state-run English-language broadcaster.

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F-4 and F-14 jets from Iran and Russian MiG-29 aircraft perform a demonstration flight at the 9th International Iran AirShow on Kish Island, Hormozgan, Iran, on Nov. 27, 2018. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

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In November 2023, Brig. Gen. Mahdi Farahi, Iran’s deputy defense minister, told Tasnim, a semi-official Iranian news agency, that plans had been finalized for Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, Mil Mi-28 attack helicopters and Yak-130 trainers to join the country’s armed forces.

Tasnim reported that Iran previously acquired MiG-29 fighter jets from Russia in the 1990s.

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