Airstrikes, then counter-strikes: the Gulf war the headlines won't name
The wire default frames the Gulf as a symmetric dispute. The operational record of the past three weeks reads the other way: US strike, Iranian counter-strike, and a tightening noose around the Strait of Hormuz.
A note on sourcing: the EPIC FURY casualty pattern, the Axios ultimatum and the Iravani letter are the three load-bearing claims. The Lebanese and Iraqi items are spillover evidence, not a substitute for the central sequence. Where the public record is thin on the precise scope of the maritime attacks, the analysis is structural rather than event-specific.
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These dated source records provide context. They do not retrospectively verify this archive article.
Separate what the nuclear watchdog reported from what it could not determine after the June 2025 strikes.