US and Israel strike Iran, targeting its top leaders
The United States and Israel have launched attacks on Iran, targeting its leadership and plunging the Middle East into a new conflict that President Donald Trump says will end the security threat to the United States and give the Iranians a chance to overthrow their rulers.
Tehran responded by launching missiles at Israel.
Explosions were also heard in nearby oil-producing Gulf Arab states, which said they had intercepted missiles from Iran.
A source familiar with the matter said that the first wave of attacks, which the Pentagon called “Operation Epic Rage”, mainly targeted Iranian officials.
An Israeli official said that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Massoud Pezeshkiyan were targeted, but the outcome of the attacks was not clear.
An Iranian source close to the organization said that many senior commanders and political officials from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were killed.
State media reported that 40 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Renewed conflict between Iran and its long-standing foes has dampened hopes for a diplomatic solution to Tehran’s nuclear dispute with the West.
There was no progress in the latest indirect talks between the US and Iran this week.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said all US bases and interests in the region were within range of Iran and that retaliation would continue until “the enemy is definitively defeated”.
Iran’s foreign minister told his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq that Tehran will use all its defense and military capabilities to defend itself.
Huge explosions took place in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, an oil producer and an ally of the USA.
Warplanes flew around Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island on Saturday afternoon and explosions were heard in Dubai, the country’s commercial capital.
Bahrain said the US Fifth Fleet’s service center came under missile attack.
Video footage from witnesses in Bahrain showed a thick, gray cloud of smoke rising near the small island state’s coastline as sirens blared.
Gulf Arab state Qatar said it had shot down all missiles targeting the country and had the right to respond. Sirens were later heard in the capital Doha.
Explosions were heard near Iran’s Kharg Island. Iran exports 90 percent of its crude oil through Kharg, passing through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
Global airlines canceled flights in the Middle East and the attacks raised the prospect of oil prices rising.
In a video message posted on social media, Trump cited Washington’s decades-long dispute with Iran, including the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, where students held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, as well as a series of other attacks that the US has blamed on Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution brought clerics to power.
He urged Iranians to stay sheltered because “bombs will rain down everywhere.”
But he added: “When we’re done, take over your government. It’ll be yours. This will probably be your only chance for generations.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a joint US-Israeli strike would “create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands” and “remove the yoke of tyranny.”
In Tehran, witnesses said people rushed to banks to withdraw cash.
Long queues formed at gas stations in cities.
Many were also concerned about a potential internet outage that would cut off communication with family abroad.
“We are being killed by the regime and Israel. We are victims of the hostile policies of this regime,” said Maryam, 54, a housewife in Tehran, as she traveled to northern Iran with her family.
