U.S. and Israel carry out strikes across Iran
Israel and the United States launched an air campaign against Iran on Saturday, striking Tehran and several other cities in what President Trump said was the beginning of “major combat operations.”
The attacks began with Israel attacking the capital Tehran on Saturday morning (a working day in Iran); residents were talking about attacks near the presidential palace and Iran’s National Security Council.
There were also reports of Israeli attacks on the Ministry of Intelligence, the Ministry of Defense, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and a military complex.
Israel’s defense minister said the “preemptive strike” was to “eliminate threats to the State of Israel.”
The scope and ultimate goal of the campaign remains unclear. But somehow eight minutes of recorded video In his message on Truth Social, Trump outlined a maximalist strategy that would ensure, in his words, “this very evil, radical dictatorship threatens America and our core national security interests.”
“We will destroy their missiles, we will destroy their missile industry. … We will destroy their navy. We will ensure that terrorist proxies in the region no longer destabilize the region and the world and attack our forces,” he said. “And we will ensure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons.”
He called on Iranians to take over their government.
“This will probably be your only chance in generations,” he said. “For years you asked for America’s help but never got it. No president was willing to do what I wanted to do tonight.”
Trump also said US military forces “may have casualties.”
Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted a source from the presidential office as saying that Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian was not harmed in the attack.
According to Iranian state media, explosions can be heard in the capital as well as in other cities such as Isfahan, Karaj, Kermanshah and Qom.
Both Israel and Iran closed their airspace.
Shortly after the attacks began, mobile phone and internet communications were cut off. Several Iranian state news sites also appear to have been hacked.
There was no immediate official response from Iran, but Ibrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, vowed retaliation.
“We warned you!” he wrote on social media. “You have now begun a path whose end is no longer in your control.”
Residents reported hearing missiles flying over cities in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, thought to be Iranian missile bombardment against Israel.
The attacks came two days after the United States and Iran completed the third round of Oman-brokered talks in Geneva aimed at reducing tensions and halting the possibility of war.
On Friday, Trump expressed displeasure with the pace of negotiations, saying the Iranian side was not negotiating “in good faith” or yielding to U.S. demands. However, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the deal was “achievable”.
