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The US and Israel have launched a joint military operation against Iran, prompting Tehran to fire retaliatory strikes against Israel and US bases across the Middle East.
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Explosions rocked the Iranian capital Tehran, with satellite imagery showing extensive damage at the secure compound of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, though his whereabouts remains unclear.
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Israel said its strikes targeted the Iranian regime leadership and military commanders, including Khamenei and the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Iranian state media, citing Iran’s senior officials, reported that Khamenei was not in Tehran and was taken to a secure location, while Pezeshkian is safe.
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Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister who has been leading the nuclear talks for the Iranian delegation, promised that Iran’s army “will teach aggressors the lesson they deserve”.
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Further explosions were reported in Gulf nations, including the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, all of which host US military bases. One person was killed from shrapnel from an Iranian missile in Abu Dhabi, UAE officials said.
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Donald Trump described the US military campaign as “massive and ongoing” as he called on the people of Iran to “take over your government”. In a speech posted on Truth Social, he said the US would “raze [Iran’s] missile industry to the ground” and claimed Tehran had refused to reach a deal with the US that would have averted war.
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The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the American-Israeli attack could “create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands”.
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World leaders have urged all sides to de-escalate and return to the negotiating table. The UK, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s retaliatory attacks on neighbouring countries but it stopped short of complete support for the US-Israeli attacks on Tehran.
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The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, has said British planes “are in the sky today” in the Middle East “as part of coordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies”.
Iran’s supreme leader and its president are both “safe and sound”, according to a spokesperson from the country’s foreign ministry.
He just told Sky News:
They are all safe and sound.
Yes, we have had some more some commanders who have been martyred as the result of this terrorist act of aggression.
But what matters is that the Iranian nation, our armed forces, our brave armed forces are taking necessary measures to defend Iran in the most strongest way possible.
The same spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, had earlier told the BBC that he was “not in a position to confirm” whether members of Iran’s senior leadership targeted by the US and Israel were unharmed.
Several hours ago, Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, told NBC News that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Masoud Pezeshkian were still alive “as far as I know”.
All high ranking officials are alive. So everybody is now in its position, and we are handling this situation, and everything is fine.
Israel said earlier that its strikes targeted the Iranian regime leadership and military commanders, including Khamenei and Pezeshkian.
Satellite imagery has shown extensive damage and black smoke at Khamenei’s compound in Tehran.
His whereabouts and those of the president remain unknown, though Iranian media reported earlier that Khamenei is due to speak today.
The Italian defense minister, Guido Crosetto, was stuck in Dubai with his family on Saturday as flights were suspended after US and Israeli attacks on Iran, a source close to the ministry told Reuters.
The minister left Rome on Friday evening aboard a civilian flight to join his family, already in Dubai on holiday. He was scheduled to return to Italy on Saturday afternoon.
The Italian carrier ITA Airways said it had suspended flights to and from Dubai until Sunday.
The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has denounced the choice to strike Iran without approval from US Congress.
Jeffries said in a statement that “Iran is a bad actor and must be aggressively confronted for its human rights violations, nuclear ambitions, support of terrorism and the threat it poses to our allies like Israel and Jordan in the region”, but added that outside of “exigent circumstances”, the president “must seek authorization for the preemptive use of military force that constitutes an act of war”.
Trump “failed to seek Congressional authorization prior to striking Iran”, Jeffries said. He also said that the latest round of strikes “has left American troops vulnerable to Iran’s retaliatory actions”.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement that “the American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions. This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic.”
She then addressed Trump directly, saying: “Mr President: this was not an inevitability. This is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people.”
Iranian media is reporting that 201 people have been killed and 747 people have been injured in the US-Israeli attacks.
Israeli emergency services have reported 94 wounded, including a teenager who was lightly wounded by shrapnel and others affected by blasts. The organization reported that it has provided medical treatment to 89 wounded in minor condition so far.
US senator Tim Kaine of Virginia has questioned whether Trump has learned anything “from decades of US meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East.”
“For months, I have raised hell about the fact that the American people want lower prices, not more war — especially wars that aren’t authorized by Congress, as required by the Constitution, and don’t have a clear objective,” Kaine said in a statement. “These strikes are a colossal mistake, and I pray they do not cost our sons and daughters in uniform and at embassies throughout the region their lives.”
Kaine also called for the Senate to “immediately return” to the Capitol and vote on whether to authorize or limit US strikes against Iran.
Senator Adam Schiff said in a statement that “Donald Trump is drawing our country into yet another foreign war that Americans don’t want and Congress has not authorized. And he has acknowledged that as a result, American troops may be lost.”
He added: “Senators Kaine, Paul, Schumer and I have introduced another War Powers Resolution to prevent U.S. Armed Forces from taking further action against Iran without authorization from Congress. We should return to session immediately and vote on the resolution.”
Residents in Dubai have said the situation in the emirate deteriorated this afternoon, with people living on the Palm Jumeirah island reporting an explosion there at about 7pm local time.
“It happened about five minutes away from us,” said a Palm Jumeirah resident who shared a video of thick black smoke appearing to rise from the top of a building but who did not want to be named.
Another resident said the situation had deteriorated and everyone is “very scared”.
“There is footage of missile interceptions all over the city,” the person said. “I am packing a suitcase just in case … Not that we can leave, because airspace is closed. It is the thing we have all been frightened about happening, and now it has.”
The death toll from a strike that hit a school in southern Iran has risen to 85 people, an official said on Iranian state TV.
Capt Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for US Central Command, said he was “aware of reports” that a girls’ school was struck and they were looking into them.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed the earlier call between Trump and Netanyahu.
“President Trump monitored the situation overnight at Mar a Lago alongside members of his national security team. The President spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu by phone,” Leavitt wrote on social media. “Prior to the attacks, Secretary Rubio called all members of the gang of eight to provide congressional notification, and he was able to reach and brief seven of the eight members.”
“The President and his national security team will continue to closely monitor the situation throughout the day,” she added.
In the run-up to the US and Israeli attacks, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assessed that even if Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the operation, he would probably be replaced by hardline figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), two sources told Reuters.
The assessments, which were produced over the past two weeks, looked broadly at what could occur in Iran after a US intervention and the extent to which a military operation could trigger regime change in the Islamic Republic – now a pronounced objective for Washington.
The IRGC is an elite military force whose purpose is to protect Shia Muslim clerical rule in Iran.
The intelligence agency reports did not conclude any scenario with certainty, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
The White House is telling us that the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, called top Democratic and Republican lawmakers who are part of the so-called gang of eight to brief them of the strikes before they commenced.
The Pentagon also delivered notifications of the strikes to the House and Senate armed services committees after the operation commenced.
But Democrats in Congress have been very vocal this morning criticizing the Trump administration’s decision to plunge the US into a conflict without congressional authorization.
Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee who is also part of the Gang of Eight, said in a statement: “Everything I have heard from the administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame.”
Democratic senator Elissa Slotkin said in a statement that the US operation against Iran “doesn’t appear to be a one-and-done”, and offered her thoughts for servicemembers and their families in the region.
Slotkin, a Michigan lawmaker, also noted that many of her constituents have family in the Middle East “who are at risk right now as Iran is striking a number of countries”.
“As a former CIA officer who served three tours in Iraq, I have no love lost for the Iranian government,” said Slotkin, who sits on the Senate armed services committee. But she underscored that Donald Trump has not “made his case to the American people”.
She added: “He hasn’t laid out the goals or the imminent threat posed by Iran that justifies risking a wider regional war. And he hasn’t followed the Constitution and brought this issue before Congress before committing our nation to war.”
In the past, leaders including Trump himself have “condemned the rush to war without clear goals in the past,” Slotkin noted.
“He owes the American people the same thing he was demanding of previous presidents if he’s going to put lives at risk. And Congress should come back to Washington to debate these issues,” the senator said.
The five-star Fairmont hotel in Dubai was engulfed in flames after what appeared to be an Iranian retaliatory strike.
Footage circulating on social media shows the moment an object strikes the luxury hotel, followed by a loud explosion. It was not immediately clear whether the building had been hit by a missile or a drone.
Authorities in the UAE emirate of Dubai later confirmed that an incident had occurred at a building in the upscale Palm Jumeirah area. It remains unclear how many casualties there were.
Tens of thousands of international tourists are stuck in the UAE, with airports closed since this morning following the start of joint US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Russia’s tourism authority said that about 50,000 Russian nationals alone were currently in the country.
An official from the European Union’s naval mission Aspides said that vessels have been receiving VHF transmissions from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards saying “no ship is allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz,” Reuters has reported.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency also said that it received multiple reports from vessels operating in the Gulf saying they had received messages on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The strait is the world’s most vital oil export route, which connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
The official said Iran had not formally confirmed any such order. Tehran has for years threatened to block the narrow waterway in retaliation for any attack on the Islamic Republic.
The New York police department says it is strengthening security at sensitive locations around New York City in response to the conflict in Iran.
“The NYPD is closely monitoring events in Iran and the Middle East and coordinating with our federal and international partners,” the department wrote on social media. “As is our protocol and out of an abundance of caution, we will be enhancing patrols to sensitive locations throughout the city, including diplomatic, cultural, religious, and other relevant sites.”
In pictures: the aftermath of US and Israeli strikes in Tehran
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
