Iran launches mass text-based recruitment drive, including minors

After suffering severe losses in Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, Iran launched a massive text message-based recruitment campaign to shore up its forces amid growing fears of a U.S. ground invasion.

Over the past week, Tehran has sent out mass text messages to the Iranian populace, urging them to join the fight against “the American-Zionist enemy’s threats against Iran’s shores, islands and borders,” the Financial Times reported. The drive was also promoted on state television and through an online portal, which claimed to have received over 5 million applicants. Specifics weren’t given, but volunteers will likely be taken into the Basij, a pro-regime paramilitary force subordinate to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.