INTERNACIONAL
Iran expands it ‘shadow empire’ across Middle East as Trump pulls troops from Iraq, Syria
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Just six months after the Trump administration said it would begin drawing down U.S. forces in Syria, the U.S. confirmed this week it will also begin reducing the number of U.S. forces in Iraq under an agreement reached by the Biden administration – a move security experts warn could benefit Iran and its «shadow empire.»
Just six months after the Trump administration announced plans to draw down U.S. forces in Syria, the Biden administration confirmed this week it will also reduce troop levels in Iraq under a new agreement – a move security experts warn could strengthen Iran and its «shadow empire.»
The changes have come amid a perceived reduction in threat from the terrorist network ISIS and a growing U.S. desire to end «forever wars.»
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But a reduced U.S. presence in both Iraq and Syria has security experts deeply concerned about the power vacuum it will create in both countries, and the immediate threat that Iran poses.
Iran for decades has been expanding its influence in both Iraq and Syria, and it has established a complex and highly embedded presence in the region militarily, politically, economically and socially, making it difficult to divert or thwart its influence even amid a regime change in Syria.
People wave guns in the air as they gather to celebrate the fall of the Syrian regime in Umayyad Square Dec. 8 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)
«The relationship between Islamic Revolutionary Iran and Syria goes all the way back to the ’80s. It’s not something that just started with the advent of the Syrian civil war,» Gregg Roman, Executive Director of the Middle East Forum, told Fox News Digital. «They took 40 years of relations and eventually turned that into an enterprise.»
Iran has used Shia militant forces from not only Syria, but Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, to construct a «parallel military infrastructure» in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that has transformed Syria into an «Iranian forward operating base.»
According to an investigative report compiled by the Middle East Forum, using on-the-ground sources embedded in Iranian military installations across Syria since 2018, Iran has not only constructed underground tunnels and weapons depots for its disposal. Tehran has embedded itself deeply into the everyday lives of Syrians through an integrated system that has blended military duties with civil programs.
It’s command structure also transcends traditional nation-state borders by integrating Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi commanders.
While Iran now faces opposition in Syria following the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime with the December 2024 takeover by the Sunni paramilitary organization Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HST) – once deemed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization deriving from al Qaeda – Tehran has the potential to take advantage of that of lack of a unified government across Syria, as well as an immensely complex geopolitical dynamic where Israel, Turkey and Russia are all vying for more influence in the nation.
Masked Iran-backed Shi’ite fighters hold their weapons in Iraq’s Al Hadidiya, south of Tikrit, en route to the Islamic State-controlled al-Alam town, where they are preparing to launch an offensive March 6, 2015. (Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani)
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Roman pointed out that if HST, in coordination with the Kurds in the northeast or the Druze in the southwest, are not able to create a «bulwark» against Iranian influence, then Tehran could be well positioned to expand its regional interest under its «shadow empire.»
«Perhaps most concerning is the precedent established by Iran’s success in constructing this shadow empire,» the report found. «The ability to build parallel military infrastructure, operate independently of host government control, and maintain strategic capabilities despite international scrutiny provides a template that could be replicated elsewhere in the region.»
Though its strategy may be slightly different, Iran has repeatedly used power vacuums to extend its reach and counter U.S. influence, as seen in both Afghanistan, where it backed the Taliban, and in Iraq, where it began backing Shia militia groups fighting the U.S. as early as 2003.
«The Iranians have a strategy in Iraq, and it’s effective,» Bill Roggio, expert terrorism analyst and senior editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ «Long War Journal,» told Fox News Digital. «They’re using military, political and economic means to achieve their goals, and their proximity to Iraq really helps them achieve that.»
Roggio said there are hundreds of thousands of Iran-backed militants in Iraq who are largely a part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, which were heavily influential in fighting ISIS and are a part of the Iraqi Armed Forces under the command of the prime minister, but which are also heavily influenced by Tehran.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias, hold an Islamist flag after Iraqi forces retook the northern city from ISIS earlier in the month on April 5, 2015, in Tikrit, Iraq. (Mohammed Sawaf/AFP via Getty Images)
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«They wield significant influence in the Iraqi government. They occupy a large, dominant block in the Iraqi parliament. And these militias also have economic power,» Roggio said. «Iran built these militia forces along the same lines as Hezbollah, and they essentially want them to ultimately become like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is in Iran.»
Both Roman and Roggio expressed concern over the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region and, more significantly, the removal of U.S. influence at a time when Iran is looking to heavily counter Washington and its interests.
«We haven’t learned the lessons of Afghanistan and even the lessons of Iraq,» Roggio said. «I don’t care if we have 100 or 100,000 troops in Afghanistan or anywhere else. Do we have the right troops to achieve the mission that we put out for them?
«We talk about numbers of troops. … We’re not really talking about what is our mission in Iraq? Is it a counter-ISIS mission? Is it a stave off Iranian influence mission?
«And do we have the right mixture of military and diplomatic and political and economic influence in Iraq to achieve those goals? I don’t believe we do.»
U.S. forces provide military training to members of the YPG/SDF, which Turkey considers an extension of PKK in Syria, in the Qamisli district in the Al-Hasakah province, Syria, Aug. 18, 2023. (Hedil Amir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Both experts pointed out that the U.S. has a long history of not taking Iran and the threat it poses seriously enough, a problem that has spanned decades across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
«The Iranians are patient. They’re operating on timeframes of decades and generations. And we aren’t patient. We operate in timeframes and two and four-year election cycles,» Roggio said. «Ultimately, Iran is looking to drive the U.S. from the region and expand its influence in neighboring countries, be it Afghanistan, be it Iraq, be it the Gulf states.
«The ultimate goal is to get the U.S. out so it can expand its influence.»
iran,middle east,syria,iraq,donald trump,terrorism,world
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The first missile in the U.S. arsenal used against Iranian targets in Saturday’s pre-dawn strike was the Tomahawk, a long-range cruise missile launched from Navy ships and submarines.
About half the length of a standard telephone pole, the Tomahawk flies at the speed of a commercial airliner and can carry a 1,000-pound warhead about the distance from Washington, D.C., to Miami.
Fired from destroyers or submarines positioned hundreds of miles away, the missiles allow a president to respond rapidly to a crisis without sending pilots into contested airspace or deploying ground forces.
The Tomahawk has become a go-to option for limited military action, because it offers precision and flexibility while keeping the U.S. footprint small. The missiles can hit fixed targets with high accuracy, reducing the risk of broader escalation.
Presidents of both parties have used Tomahawks in the opening hours of military operations, from strikes in Iraq in the 1990s to more recent operations in Syria and elsewhere.
Defense officials and military analysts say the weapon’s long range, reliability and relatively low risk to American personnel make it an attractive first-strike option when the White House wants to send a message quickly but stop short of a wider war.
That combination of speed, distance and precision has kept the Tomahawk at the center of U.S. military planning for decades.
The Tomahawk missile is manufactured by U.S. defense contractor Raytheon, also known as RTX. (U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
Manufactured by defense titan Raytheon — now RTX — the Tomahawk has been a mainstay of the Navy’s arsenal since the 1980s. It was first used in combat during the 1991 Gulf War and has since become a go-to option for presidents seeking to strike from long range without putting U.S. service members in harm’s way.
«Year in and year out, administration in and administration out, it’s the long-range land attack cruise missile that presidents reach for first in a crisis,» Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.
But heavy use has taken a toll. «We’ve been using them far more frequently than we’ve been producing them,» Karako said.
Prior to Saturday’s operation, the missile was used in June 2025 during a U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Smoke rises after reported Iranian missile attacks, following strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, in Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 28, 2026. (Reuters)
Overall, the Tomahawk has been deployed more than 2,350 times.
At roughly $1.4 million apiece, the Tomahawk missile has an intermediate range of 800 to 1,553 miles and can be launched from more than 140 U.S. Navy ships and submarines.
The Tomahawk strike was just one piece of a broader U.S. military posture in the region.
Ahead of the strikes, the U.S. military amassed what Trump previously called an «armada» in Iran’s backyard. Mapped out across the Persian Gulf and beyond, the deployment tells its own story, one of calculated pressure backed by credible capability.
THE ONLY MAP YOU NEED TO SEE TO UNDERSTAND HOW SERIOUS TRUMP IS ABOUT IRAN
The deployment coincided with indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Trump has warned that the regime must fully dismantle its nuclear infrastructure or face consequences.
An F-35B takes off from the USS America flight deck. (Cpl. Isaac Cantrell/U.S. Marine Corps)
At the center of the U.S. presence are two aircraft carrier strike groups — the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford — each supported by guided-missile destroyers and cruisers and capable of sustained air and missile operations.
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More than a dozen additional U.S. warships are also operating in the region in support roles, according to defense officials.
It was not immediately clear how or when Tehran might respond, though Iranian leaders have previously warned of retaliation in the event of direct U.S. military involvement.
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war with iran,iran,middle east,donald trump,israel,defense
INTERNACIONAL
Iranian ‘top target’ hit in $10M precision strike; US kamikaze drones used to ‘overwhelm’
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Israel struck its key target in Tehran Saturday in what a defense expert has described as a multimillion-dollar precision-guided attack alongside a broader offensive involving U.S. waves of lower-cost kamikaze drones.
Cameron Chell, CEO of drone manufacturer Draganfly, told Fox News Digital the campaign would have likely paired advanced and costly assets against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound, while U.S. forces used cheaper drones to «overwhelm» on land, air and sea.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) also confirmed that the drones were deployed for the first time in history.
«CENTCOM’s Task Force Scorpion Strike — for the first time in history — is using one-way attack drones in combat during Operation Epic Fury,» it said in an X post before adding that the «low-cost drones, modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones, are now delivering American-made retribution.»
«Saturday saw an overwhelming daytime attack with incredible intelligence to target the leadership and a strike on the compound possibly costing tens of millions,» Chell said.
«That would likely have included expensive, precision-strike drones or manned aircraft in highly coordinated attacks to ensure success, not necessarily the lower-cost, one-way version of the suicide drones,» he explained.
«The U.S. has this lower-cost alternative to hit everything at once, but then the very expensive, high-precision assets would likely have gone directly after leadership on Saturday,» Chell added.
A map of Western strikes against Iran (Fox News)
A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the compound strike was a «wildly bold daytime attack.»
«It caught the senior leadership off guard on a Saturday morning during Ramadan and on Shabbat in the daytime,» the official added.
«We hit the senior leaders right out of the gate,» the source told Fox national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.
Iran’s military, government and intelligence sites were targeted, an official briefed on the operation also told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A handful of top Iranian leaders were killed, including the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the public on the 47th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, according to Iranian state television in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 9, 2026. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Anadolu/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump also announced Saturday that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been killed in the strike.
«If drones were involved in that top target attack, it would have been the very sophisticated MQ-type or Global Hawk-type drones,» Chell said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said other attacks across the country were being done «to remove threats.»
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, those targets included Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command and control centers, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields.
Chell described how those secondary targets would have been hit by the U.S. with the cheaper one-way «kamikaze» drones before adding that the strikes «seemed to be an excellent example of mass overwhelm at a new level.»
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U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine monitors U.S. military operations in Iran after an Israeli strike in Tehran alongside several Cabinet members Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (@WhiteHouse/X)
Chell suggested Iran’s defenses were likely degraded well before the strike began because of the coordination.
«I think likely the defense systems, communication systems, were overwhelmingly compromised,» he added. «And so I think they just overwhelmed them,» he said.
«I’m sure there would have been days, if not even weeks, of work and preparation to take out those defense communication systems.
«They would have compromised those defense communications in some way through electronic warfare or cyberattack.
«The battlefield now is so multidimensional,» Chell emphasized.
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«It’s about cyber warfare, misinformation and electronic warfare as well.
«This was seemingly so swift because it was incredibly well-planned and coordinated by the U.S. and Israel on a massive level that’s not been seen before.»
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war with iran,iran,ali khamenei,military,us navy,wars
INTERNACIONAL
El turismo internacional se derrumba en Cuba, pero crece el número de visitantes argentinos: ¿qué buscan?
El turismo internacional en Cuba, una de las principales fuentes de divisas de la Revolución, se derrumba a causa del colapso energético que vive el país bajo un bloqueo de combustible dispuesto por Donald Trump. Pero paradójicamente, mientras el flujo de visitantes se desploma, cada vez más argentinos vuelan a La Habana a pesar de la recomendación de la Cancillería de no visitar la isla.
Es un fenómeno extraño que se mantiene constante en los últimos años. Si bien México es el país de la región con más viajeros a Cuba, el número de turistas mexicanos viene cayendo año a año.
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“En la última década, solo un país latinoamericano ha estado sistemáticamente por delante de Argentina y lo sigue estando: México. El país norteamericano cerró el pasado año con 56.438 turistas, más que los 49.428 argentinos. La diferencia está en la evolución: mientras los mexicanos cayeron un 21%, los argentinos subieron un 13,6%”, escribió el portal cubano 14ymedio, dirigido por la periodista disidente Yoani Sánchez.
A qué van los argentinos a Cuba
La actual crisis no cambió la tendencia. Cuba atraviesa hoy la peor emergencia social, económica y humanitaria en los 67 años de Revolución.
Sin combustible, con apagones eternos y una escasez generalizada de servicios y productos de primera necesidad, los cubanos sobreviven con lo poco que tienen y dependen en gran parte de la ayuda que llega desde el exilio a través de remesas familiares. Una imagen de archivo de Cuba (Foto: EFE)
En ese panorama desolador, los argentinos siguen viajando a la isla. A diferencia de otros turistas, como los canadienses, que viajaban a Cuba solo para disfrutar de las playas con vuelos directos a paradisíacos cayos del archipiélago, los argentinos mezclan sus intereses.
Los viajeros argentinos suelen visitar La Habana, alguna playa como Varadero, Cayo Largo o Cayo Coco y viajar a Santiago de Cuba o a la histórica ciudad de Trinidad. Desde ahí, muchos visitan la cercana Santa Clara para conocer el Mausoleo del Che. Se trata, en síntesis, de un turismo que mixtura ocio, sol, visitas urbanas y un acercamiento “político” y social a la realidad cubana.
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El flujo de visitantes argentinos se mantuvo incluso en enero pasado, tras la captura de Nicolás Maduro que inauguró una etapa crítica para la Revolución, que dependía del suministro de crudo venezolano para mantener activa su vetusta infraestructura energética.
En ese mes, México aportó 3384 turistas (casi un 8% menos que el mismo mes de 2025), la mitad que Argentina que llegó a los 7336 contra los 4057 de enero de 2025. Pero hay un dato adicional: un vuelo desde Ciudad de México a La Habana dura solo dos horas y media. Desde Buenos Aires un viaje puede superar las 16 horas porque no hay conexiones directas. Solo Copa mantiene sus vuelos vía Panamá. Latam, Andes y Aerolíneas suspendieron sus operaciones a la isla.
La caída turística es general: en enero llegaron apenas 184.833 viajeros internacionales. Pero esta cifra representa apenas una caída de 5,9% comparado con igual mes del año pasado cuando arribaron 196.004, según las estadísticas obtenidas por 14ymedio. En 2019 habían rozado el medio millón.
En 2025 la caída del turismo fue brutal. El desplome llegó al 25%. Solo llegaron 1,8 millones de turistas.
Qué está pasando con el turismo argentino a Cuba
En las oficinas de Buenos Aires de Havanatur, considerada la empresa estatal cubana líder del sector turístico, las cotizaciones de paquetes de viajes y vuelos son constantes, según dijo a TN una fuente de la empresa.
“No está bajando, aunque el año pasado había más llamados”, indicó. Imagen cotidiana en una calle de La Habana (Foto: EFE)
Pero otros operadores no son tan optimistas.
El cubano Hector Danilo Pompa, de Guajira Viajes, dijo que el turismo argentino a Cuba se mantuvo porque se habían programado vuelos directos a Cayo Largo. “Ahora se hace difícil vender un paquete porque solo llega Copa y se encarecen los tramos aéreos”, indicó.
Copa viaja desde Buenos Aires a Ciudad de Panamá y, desde allí, previa espera, se debe abordar un vuelo a La Habana.
Leé también: Nuevo golpe a Cuba: una importante minera suspenderá sus operaciones por la falta de combustible
Guajira ofrece paquetes de nueve días a La Habana/Varadero por 3170 dólares por persona y una estancia similar en Cayo Largo por 1985 dólares. Ambas opciones incluyen vuelos y traslados en la isla, pero no el seguro médico obligatorio.
Havanatur ofrece viajes de 9 días a Cayo Largo por 1559 dólares. A Varadero el mismo viaje cuesta alrededor de 1600 dólares. El precio varía según el hotel.
“Cuba está en un momento difcil de su historia, con un cambio social y politico que se avizora. Ahora viajan menos aerolíneas por falta de combustible. Hay menos hoteles. No veo que haya aumentado el flujo turístico desde la Argentina. Se mantiene porque se habían programado vuelos directos a los cayos. Hoy solo viaja a Copa. Se hace muy difícil vender un paquete a la isla”, resumió.
La situación es tan compleja que Pompa les hace firmar a los turistas que viajan a Cuba una carta de compromiso en la que la agencia de viajes no se responsabiliza por la suspensión de vuelos que puedan sufrir los viajeros. “Yo no me hago responsable”, concluyó.
En ese panorama, el flujo turístico desde la Argentina podría mermar en los próximos meses a medida que se agrava la situación en la isla.
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