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U.S. President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the United States has begun "major combat operations" in Iran, with air and sea strikes hitting targets across the country, including the capital, Tehran, in the most significant U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran is attempting to rebuild its nuclear program and develop long-range missiles that could threaten the United States.
President Trump, in a video posted on Truth Social, said, "Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world."
President Donald Trump confirmed launching "major combat operations" in a video posted on Truth Social, vowing to destroy Iran's missiles, annihilate its navy and ensure the country never obtains a nuclear weapon.
The U.S. Department of Defense named the joint US-Israeli military campaign against Iran "Operation Epic Fury", as the Israeli military said the strikes have hit "dozens of military targets" aimed at thoroughly degrading what it called "the Iranian terrorist regime," and Iranian retaliatory missiles triggered intercepts over Qatar and sirens across the Persian Gulf.
Fars News Agency reported that several missiles hit University Street and the Republic area in central Tehran, with smoke visible from the city center.
An unnamed Iranian official told Reuters that several ministries in southern Tehran have been targeted.
"A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime," Trump stated.
"We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated," Trump said, adding that the US would "annihilate the navy" and ensure that "the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world."
Trump cited a litany of Iranian actions against the U.S. dating back decades, the 1979 embassy takeover in Tehran, the 1983 Beirut Marine barracks bombing that killed 241 Americans, the 2000 USS Cole attack and hundreds of American service members killed and maimed in Iraq by Iranian forces.
"It's been mass terror. We're not going to put up with it any longer," Trump said, calling Iran "the world's number one state sponsor of terror."
Trump said Iran had "rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions" despite last June's Operation Midnight Hammer, which "obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan."
"For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests," he declared.
In an extraordinary address to the Iranian people, Trump said: "I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere."
"When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations," Trump noted.
He called on Iran's Revolutionary Guards, armed forces and police to lay down their arms in exchange for full immunity. "Otherwise, you will face certain death," Trump warned.
Trump acknowledged the risk to American forces. "The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war," he said.
The Israeli military said the joint attack has struck "dozens of military targets" in Iran so far, aimed at "thoroughly degrading the Iranian terrorist regime."
A central goal of the first wave of strikes was to hit as many Iranian leaders as possible, according to three Israeli security officials familiar with the operations. Planners calculated that they had to target senior officials in the first round, as precautions would increase afterward to protect the leadership, the officials said.
Israeli Channel 12 reported that Iran's Chief of General Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi was among those targeted and that Israel is preparing for four days of intense joint attacks in the initial phase.
A U.S. official told Reuters that the focus of the American strikes is Iran's military apparatus.
Besides the nuclear facilities struck last June, Iran is believed to have over 2,000 missiles—primarily short- and medium-range ballistic missiles scattered at launch sites across the country, US military officials said.
The strikes are being carried out from Middle East bases and aircraft carriers and are expected to be far more extensive than last June's Operation Midnight Hammer attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites, The New York Times (NYT) reported.
The attack follows a massive US military buildup in the region that included the deployment of two aircraft carriers—the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford—several naval destroyers, and over 50 fighter planes, as well as over 300 military aircraft deployed across the region.
This marks the second U.S. attack on Iran in less than a year. Last June, the U.S. bombed three nuclear sites, which Trump said "completely and totally obliterated" them.
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