PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 18th, 2026: Iran’s Security Forces Are Now On The Run & Russia Boosts Tehran’s War Effort
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00:40It's Wednesday, the 18th of March.March, welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.All right, let's get briefed. First up, new reporting reveals Iran's security forces are now on the runas Israeli strikes push regime enforcers out of their headquarters and into hiding. Later in the show,Russia is now backing Iran more directly, with new reporting that Moscow is providing satelliteimagery and upgraded drone technology to target U.S. and allied forces.But first, today's afternoon spotlight.I want to start with some very solid new reporting from the Wall Street Journal
01:18that's giving us an inside look at what's happening inside Iran.And what we're starting to see are signs that the regime's internal security apparatusis under increasing pressure.Iran's security forces aren't operating out of established headquarters and known facilitiesanymore.They're not coordinating from command centers or fortified compounds.According to reports, some are now sleeping in their cars,hiding under highway overpasses and even setting up tents and wooded areas outside Tehran,
01:46just trying to stay alive.Now, from the outset, the U.S. focused on degrading Iran's military capabilities.Its missile launchers, its air defenses, its industrial base, but Israel took on a different mission,going after the regime's internal enforcement arms, that would be the besieged militia,internal police units, and elements of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC,responsible for keeping control inside the country.In other words, while the U.S. focused on Iran's military, Israel was striking at the securityelements responsible for suppressing protests and maintaining internal order. The units mostly
02:22responsible for the recent murder of thousands of Iranians during the popular uprising earlier thisyear. And now that campaign appears to have evolved. According to the journal, Israel has droppedroughly 10,000 munitions across thousands of targets, including more than 2,000 tied specificallyto Iran's internal security forces. It started with large fixed targets, headquarters,command posts, staging areas, then Israeli intelligence identified fallback locations, places wherethese forces would regroup once those facilities were destroyed. One example would be sportsstadiums. For example, at Tehran's Azadi Stadium, hundreds of security personnel were reportedlykilled after gathering there as part of a contingency plan. In other cases, police and militia units
03:07have taken over hospitals, forcing patients aside. But what we're seeing now is something more precise.It's no longer just about striking locations. It's about tracking people. Israeli forces are nowflying loitering surveillance and armed drones over Tehran, targeting small units,checkpoints, patrols, even individual besiege teams, in some cases, just two or three personnel at a time.In the past 24 hours, Israel says it's also killed Iran's intelligence minister, Esmer al-Katib,in an overnight strike. If confirmed, well, that would mark the third senior Iranian officialtied to internal security that's been eliminated in less than 48 hours. Part of what makesthis campaign different is the level of intelligence penetration. According to the reporting,
03:52Israeli operatives are receiving tips from inside Iran, from ordinary citizens, pointing outwhere security forces are gathering or hiding. In one reported case, a tip led Israeli forcesto a wooded area outside Tehran, where the head of the besiege militia was reportedly killedwhile hiding in a tent with his deputies. At the same time, there are reports of direct psychologicalpressure, Israeli intelligence agents allegedly contacting Iranian commanders by phone, warning themby name, threatening consequences if they continue to support the regime. And on the ground,the effects are starting to show. Security personnel are reportedly abandoning traditional facilitiesand moving into civilian spaces, mosques, residential buildings, underneath highway bridges to avoid
04:36detection. Some have been sleeping in stairwells or inside buses. Basic policing functions are beginningto break down. In some areas, routine crime investigations have stalled not because the crimes have stopped,but because there's no one left at the station to handle them. Now, as always, it's important to keep thisin perspective. History shows that air campaigns, even aggressive ones, rarely topple regimes on their own,And despite everything that we're seeing, Iran's security forces are still in the streets.They're still capable of suppressing dissent, still capable of maintaining order, at least for now.So being, quote, on the run doesn't necessarily mean they're losing control, but it does suggest something else.It suggests that the systems designed to enforce that control are under real stress,
05:23forced to adapt, disperse, and operate in ways that they weren't built for.And that raises the bigger question going forward.Is this the beginning of something breaking inside Iran, or just the chaos of a regime that stillknows how to hold on?Later in the show, a closer look at Russia's growing role in this conflict, as new reportingshows that Moscow is sharing intelligence and drone technology to bolster Iran's war effort.I'll have those details when we come back.Hey, Mike Baker here.
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09:28providing satellite imagery to help Tehran target American assets more effectively.If you've been following PDB coverage of the war, well, you'll remember that early in thisconflict, anonymous intelligence sources suggested that the Kremlin had been providing the regimewith drone targeting information on U.S. military forces and regional allies across the Gulf.The White House was dismissive of those reports, saying that even if true, Russia's assistancewouldn't have a negative impact on U.S. operations. That reporting then later expanded,with indications that Moscow may be helping the regime refine its drone tactics against Americanassets using methods drawn from its war in Ukraine. Now, new reporting from the Wall Street Journal
10:11reveals that cooperation appears to have deepened even further, moving beyond earlierintelligence sharing into more direct guidance. According to officials, familiar with the matter,including a senior European intelligence officer and a Middle Eastern diplomat, Moscow is now supplyingTehran with targeting data via satellites that gives a regime a far more precise picture of U.S.in allied positions before and after strikes. Put simply, this is no longer just broad intelligencesharing, its actionable battlefield information. The intelligence aiding the regime is coming froma fleet of military satellites operated by the Russian aerospace forces. That intelligenceprovides the Iranian military and IRGC with detailed insight into both land-based and sea-based targets,
10:58everything from specific aircraft and munition sites to air defense systems and naval movements.That's the kind of information that the regime simply didn't have in previous weeks,and it can be used not only to plan strikes, but to evaluate their effectiveness.Those same officials state that Russia is also upgrading Iran's drone capabilities,providing modified components for Shahed drones to improve navigation, communication, and strike accuracy.At the same time, Moscow is also reportedly sharing their battlefield experience gained during Putin'sfor your invasion of Ukraine. In drawing on lessons from its Ukraine conflict, Russia is advising the IslamicRepublic on how to deploy drone swarms more effectively, such as how many to launch, what altitudes
11:42to fly, and how to sequence attacks to overwhelm air defenses before follow-up strikes.So, you may ask, are we seeing the results of all of that? Increasingly, it looks like the answer isyes. Iranian attacks across the region have shown a higher level of coordination and precisionin recent days, including strikes on American radar and missile defense infrastructure.Among the latest targets hit was an early warning radar tied to a terminal high-altitudearea defense system, commonly known as Thad. It's a transportable ground-based U.S. missiledefense platform located in Jordan. Officials say that,operations closely resemble the tactics Russia's used in Ukraine, where waves of drones are
12:23deployed to saturate defenses before more precise strikes follow. And notably, Iran appears to behaving greater success targeting U.S. and Gulf State military assets in this conflict than it didduring last year's brief 12-day war, raising new questions about how much of that improvementmay be tied to expanding Russian support. So you may be asking, how did this relationship betweenTehran and Moscow evolved to this point? Well, of course, the answer is the relationship between Russia andIran has been building for years, but accelerated rapidly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Iran'sbeen one of Moscow's most important military partners, supplying the Kremlin with tens of thousandsof Shah had drones that have been used extensively against Ukrainian cities and military sites and civilian
13:10infrastructure. Since then, Russia has begun producing those same drones domestically, refining their abilityto navigate, target more precisely, and withstand electronic warfare. And they're now feeding thoseimprovements back to the Iranian regime, creating a two-way pipeline of military innovation. Of course,and this shall not surprise you, Moscow says none of this is happening. Kremlin mouthpiece,Dmitri Peskov dismissed the Wall Street Journal report as, quote, fake news. Okay, Dmitri.Now, the White House at some point will have to deal with the reality that the Kremlinis providing Iran with the ability to more effectively target American lives and facilities in theregion. It's a simple fact. The better your intelligence on your adversaries, locations,
13:58movements, personnel, and facilities, the more lethal your targeting becomes.Russia is an adversary to the U.S., also another fact. And they have a very close relationshipwith Iran on military matters, including technology and intelligence. Oh, look at that.Yet another fact.So, Russian support to Iran during this conflict makes Iran more lethal. It enables them to bettertarget and kill U.S. personnel. The U.S. administration can be dismissive of all that, but it doesn'tin any way change those facts. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesdaythe 18th of March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at
14:41thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, you can do that. It is avery simple, just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visitingPDB Premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed.Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take a moment to talk about personal financesand the importance of diversifying your assets. So here's the question. Do you own physical gold?In today's world, with its ups and downs and general instability, and I think we've got some generalinstability out there. Owning gold is something that everyone should consider. And here's a toptip. Acre gold makes it simple. That's Acre, A-C-R-E. With Acre gold gold, you pick a plan that fits your
15:35budget, you make monthly payments, and when you've accumulated it enough, well, they ship you a beautifullydesigned 24-carat Swiss gold bar. The gold is up 70% year-over-year, and central banksare still buying gold at record levels. The reality is smart money has been moving into hardassets for a reason. Acre Gold makes it investing and owning gold easier than ever. And if I might just say,once you hold a physical asset like gold in your hand, now you understand the difference betweenowning something real, something physical, as compared to investments that are just numbers on a screen.And right now, the folks at Acre Gold are giving away two five gram ancient collection gold bars.You can enter for free for a chance to win the gold bars and also subscribe to gold
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