U.S. attacks Iran while Trump calls for the government to be overthrown
Israel joined the major attack led by the United States as President Trump promised to destroy Iran’s military and end its nuclear program. Several Arab nations that host U.S. military bases claimed to have been targeted, and Iran promised retaliation. The most recent is here. The United States and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday in a major assault that threatened a broader regional conflict, with President Trump vowing to devastate the country’s military, eliminate its nuclear program and bring about a change in its government.
People in Tehran, the Iranian capital, reported seeing smoke rising from the presidential palace district after large explosions. Witnesses described chaos in the streets as Iranians rushed to seek shelter, find loved ones or flee the city.
Mr. Trump promised that the “massive and ongoing” campaign would not just target Iran’s nuclear program, which was the target of an American attack in June. Instead, Mr. Trump argued that Iran had refused to reach a deal with the United States that would have prevented war, and that the United States would “annihilate their navy” and “raze their missile industry to the ground.” Attack planes from U.S. bases and aircraft carriers carried out dozens of strikes throughout the Middle East, with military assets, according to officials.
The attack also targeted the Iranian leadership, according to three Israeli security officials briefed on the campaign. Although Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s whereabouts were unknown, satellite imagery revealed a plume of smoke and extensive damage at his Tehran residence. The campaign has the potential to ignite an even broader regional crisis, as Iran vowed “crushing retaliation.”
Israel’s air defenses attempted to repel Iran’s multiple waves of ballistic missiles, which caused booms. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait — all of which host U.S. military bases — said they had come under attack, as did Jordan. According to the government of the Emirates, at least one person was killed in the country by falling debris from an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
Following weeks of increasing tension as Mr. Trump repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if the government did not comply with American demands. American and Iranian officials held a last-ditch round of mediated talks on Thursday over Tehran’s nuclear program. The talks ended without a breakthrough.
Analysts raised the concern that the fighting could quickly turn into a prolonged conflict with no clear end in sight. Mr. Trump suggested that the conflict might end with Iranians overthrowing their own authoritarian government after the American assault. “It will be yours to take,” Mr. Trump stated while speaking to Iranians. “This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
Another thing to know: Tehran was in chaos when Ali Zeinalipoor, a resident of Tehran, saw a huge cloud of smoke billowing from Pasteur Street nearby. He stated, “The girls were hiding under the stairs and crying. I rushed to school to pick up my daughter from middle school.” Read more ›
Trump’s video: Mr. Trump, standing behind a lectern and wearing a white USA hat, said in an eight-minute video posted to Truth Social early Saturday that the U.S. objective was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” He added that “its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.” Read more ›
The crisis: The latest tensions with Iran began after Mr. Trump vowed in early January to aid antigovernment demonstrators there. The Iranian government quelled those protests in a bloody crackdown that killed thousands, according to rights groups. Mr. Trump has since both threatened to attack Iran and sought to leverage the unrest in the country to reach a diplomatic solution.
Last year’s strikes: The United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities last June during a 12-day-war between Israel and Iran. whereas Mr. Trump initially stated that American strikes had “obliterated” the Iranian nuclear program; however, it was later discovered that the effort had been degraded rather than completely destroyed.
The Israeli military said it had begun its overnight bombing campaign in Iran with a simultaneous assault on several sites in the capital, Tehran, including places where senior Iranian leaders were thought to be located. Previous attacks on Iran began in the dead of night, but the Israeli military said Saturday’s strikes began in the morning hours in an attempt to preserve the element of surprise.
Esfandiar, an engineer living in the Pasdaran area of Tehran where a large compound belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards forces is located, wrote in a text message: “My children are crying and scared. We are huddling in the bathroom. We have no idea what to do. This is frightening. Turkey’s largest airlines, which often serve fliers transiting to and from the Middle East, cancelled flights across the region.
Turkish Airlines announced that it would offer no service to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan through March 2. Flights to United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman were suspended for Saturday, it said. Pegasus Airlines announced similar cancellations.
After both Iran and its allied militia in Iraq, Kata’ib Hezbollah, threatened retaliation on U.S. targets, Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region ordered the closing of schools there until Wednesday. The last U.S. military base in Iraq, as well as a massive U.S. consulate, are located in the northern region.
“Successfully thwarted the third wave of attacks that targeted several areas in the country,” the Qatari Ministry of Defense stated in a statement. The Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. base in the Middle East, is located in Qatar. At least so far, it appears that Israel’s air defenses are handling the Iranian missile retaliation fairly well.
The Israeli military says Iran has fired several barrages yet there have been no reports of anyone killed or serious damage. At least one man was lightly wounded during one of the missile attacks in northern Israel, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency service. During the Israel-Iran war last June, Iranian attacks killed more than 30 people in Israel.
President Emmanuel Macron of France said the outbreak of war between United States, Israel and Iran had “grave consequences for international peace and security.” He stated that Iran had no choice but to negotiate an end to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and called for an end to the “ongoing escalation.” Macron said France would deploy resources at the request of its partners, and called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Committee. Dozens of people were killed in a strike on a girls’ school in the city of Minab, in Iran’s Hormozgan province, according to state news agencies.
The province is located in the Strait of Hormuz, which is important. Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a Republican from Mississippi, issued a statement in support of President Trump’s attack on Iran: “Today, our commander-in-chief took decisive action against the threat posed by the world’s leading proliferator of terrorism, the Iranian regime,” he said. “This is a pivotal and necessary operation to protect Americans and American interests.”
