Iran

On 13-14 April 2024 Iran launched Operation True Promise — approximately 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at Israel — in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1 April 2024 that killed IRGC Quds Force general Mohammad Reza Zahedi. Around 99% of projectiles were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome, Arrow system, and air support from the US, UK, France, and Jordan. Israel responded on 19 April with a limited strike on an Iranian air-defence radar near Isfahan. On 1 October 2024 Iran launched Operation True Promise II — roughly 180 ballistic missiles — following Israeli assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. Israel struck Iranian missile production facilities on 26 October 2024. Both exchanges are confirmed military actions, not conspiracy theories; the 'conspiracy' dimension concerns competing narratives about who started each escalation cycle and whether Western air support amounted to a covert co-belligerent commitment.

On 3 July 1988 USS Vincennes (CG-49) shot down Iran Air Flight 655 — an Airbus A300 — over the Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 people on board including 66 children. The US Navy's Aegis combat system misidentified the aircraft as an Iranian F-14. The US government never formally apologised; a 1996 ICJ settlement paid $61.8 million in compensation without admission of liability. The cover-up framing centres on the Vincennes having entered Iranian territorial waters (initially denied), Captain Will Rogers III later receiving the Legion of Merit, and a 1992 Newsweek report claiming the crew celebrated the shootdown.

A sophisticated computer worm discovered in 2010 that sabotaged centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility — later confirmed to have been developed jointly by the US (NSA/CIA) and Israel (Unit 8200) under Operation Olympic Games.

Reagan administration officials secretly sold arms to Iran (under embargo) and diverted the proceeds to fund Nicaraguan Contra rebels (Congressionally banned). Exposed in 1986; led to 14 convictions.