US, Israel launch major attack on Iran
The US and Israel launched a major attack on Iran on Saturday, and President Donald Trump urged the Iranian public to “seize control of your destiny” by rising against the Islamic leadership that has ruled the nation since 1979.
Iranian State media, citing the Red Crescent, on Saturday evening said at least 201 people had been killed and more than 700 injured. Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones toward Israel and US military bases in the region, and exchanges of fire continued into the night.
Some of the first strikes on Iran appeared to hit near the offices of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Smoke rose from the capital as part of strikes that Iranian media said occurred nationwide.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian are alive “as far as I know,” and called the attack “unprovoked, illegal and absolutely illegitimate.” In a video announcing the “major combat operations,” Trump told Iranians that “when we are finished, take over your Government. It will be yours to take. This will probably be your only chance for generations.”
The strikes during the holy fasting month of Ramadan opened a stunning new chapter in US intervention in Iran, marking the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has attacked the Islamic Republic during talks over its nuclear program.
About 12 hours after the attacks began, the US military reported no US casualties and minimal damage at US bases despite “hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks.” It said targets in Iran included Revolutionary Guard command facilities, air defence capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields.
The targets included members of Iran’s leadership, according to a US official and another person briefed on the attacks who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation. There was no immediate information on whether top officials were killed.
Even if Iran’s top leaders are killed, regime change is not guaranteed. Neither the US nor Israel have articulated a vision for what new leadership might look like.
Democrats decried that Trump had taken action without congressional authorisation. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the administration had briefed several Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress in advance.
The UN Security Council said it would meet Saturday afternoon. In a letter to the council, Araghchi said, “all bases, facilities, and assets of the hostile forces in the region shall be regarded as legitimate military objectives.”
Iran also requested an urgent session of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors about “these threats to safeguarded nuclear facilities,” according to a letter posted by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog said on X it was closely monitoring developments and had seen “no evidence of radiological impact.”
And Iran was in a “near-total internet blackout,” advocacy group NetBlocks said, complicating connections with the outside world.
