The United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iranian targets on Saturday, causing explosions and thick smoke over Tehran in a major escalation over Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes.
President Donald Trump, speaking from his Florida golf club, described the operation as aimed at “eliminating imminent threats” from Iran.
“The United States’ military began major combat operations in Iran,” Trump said in a video message. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their navy.”
He offered Iranian military personnel “immunity” or “certain death” and told ordinary Iranians that “the hour of your freedom is at hand.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called it a “preventive strike.”
Iranian state television said President Pezeshkian was safe. Fars news agency reported seven missile impacts in Tehran’s Keshvardoost and Pasteur districts. An office worker told AFP he saw two Tomahawk missiles flying low before blasts shook the city. Ambulances were sent, but no casualty figures were confirmed.
Iran, Iraq, and Israel closed civilian airspace during the strikes. US embassies in Qatar and Bahrain urged Americans to shelter. Sirens sounded in Jerusalem with cellphone alerts issued.
Trump had deployed a massive US force to the Middle East, including the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group.
The strikes followed US-Iran talks in Geneva mediated by Oman. Trump said Friday Iran was “not willing to give us what we have to have.” Oman claimed Iran agreed to zero uranium stockpiling and downgrading existing material into fuel.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Israel Monday for talks on Iran—travelling without reporters. The IAEA will hold technical discussions with Iran Monday and urged constructive cooperation.
