1 of 3 | Parents of the student victims gathered at the ruins of a school following an U.S-Israeli airstrike in Hormozgan province. Israel and the United States announced they were attacking Iran on Saturday. Photo courtesy Iranian Red Crescent | License Photo
Feb. 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced Saturday that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was dead after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Iran.
Iran’s military retaliated against the early-morning attack with its own strikes targeting U.S. bases and sites in Israel.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”
Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said several other Iranian defense officials were also killed in the attacks, including Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh; Revolutionary Guard Corps head Gen. Mohammad Pakpour; and Khamenei’s defense adviser, Ali Shamkhani.
The United States and Israel attacked multiple locations in Iran early Saturday, including multiple sites in Tehran, and Urmia, Tabriz, Kermanshah, Isfahan, Shiraz, Chabahar, and other spots along the Persian Gulf, The New York Times reported citing Iranian state news.
Explosions were reported in Tehran, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. An Israel military representative said “dozens of military sites” were attacked in the joint offensive.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in a statement that Israel’s military carried out what it called a “preemptive strike against the Islamic Republic” with the mission to “eliminate threats against the country of Israel.”
The New York Times, citing authorities in multiple Gulf nations, reported that Iran fired missiles in retaliation at U.S. bases in the region. A video confirmed by NBC News showed an explosion at a U.S. Navy service center in Bahrain. Officials said there was damage at the facility but there were no reported American casualties.
“Damage to U.S. installations was minimal and has not impacted operations,” U.S. Central Command said in a post on X.
CENTCOM said there have been no reported U.S. casualties in any of Saturday’s actions. It also disputed reports that the Iranian military struck a U.S. Navy ship.
Iran also launched missiles toward Israel, where alerts were activated, according to the Israeli military.
“At this hour, the Air Force is operating to intercept and strike in any location where it is required to remove that threat,” the Israeli military said.
At least one missile struck a building in Tel Aviv late Saturday, killing at least one person, a paramedic said. Another person sustained critical injuries.
Other Iranian strikes included at a Dubai hotel, and locations in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. The Dubai International Airport also sustained “minor damage,” local officials said. The United Arab Emirates said it has intercepted more than 100 ballistic missiles and nearly 200 drones from Iran, the Emirates New Agency reported, according to NBC News.
Shortly after the airstrikes began Saturday, Trump posted an 8-minute video posted to his Truth Social media account. He called on members of Iran’s military to lay down their arms or “face certain death.”
To the Iranian people, he instructed them to seize their government following the strikes.
“To the great proud people of Iran, I say your hour of freedom is at hand,” he said.
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will probably be your only chance for generations.”
Trump said the mission was in defense of the American people to eliminate “imminent threats” emanating from Iran. He warned that American troops may be killed in the process.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties,” he said.
The Iranian Red Crescent said more than 200 Iranians have been killed in the attacks and another 700 injured. Among the dead were multiple people killed in a strike on a girls school in Minab province.
Iranian President Massed Pezeshkian called the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school a “cowardly attack.”
“This brutal act is another dark page in the record of countless crimes by aggressors against this land and will never be erased from the historical memory of our nation,” he said.
The extent of the attacks and what had been targeted was not immediately clear, but Trump vowed to “raze” Iran’s missile industry, “annihilate” its navy and the United States would ensure that its proxies throughout the Middle East “can no longer destabilize the region or the world.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in a statement of his own, described Operation Roaring Lion as a joint operation between the United States and Israel.
“Our joint action will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands.
“The time has come for all segments of the people in Iran — Persians, the Kurds, the Azeris, the Balochi and the Ahwazis — to rid themselves of the yoke of tyranny and bring about a free and peace-seeking Iran.”
Netanyahu, without offering evidence, suggested Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, may have died.
“The plan to destroy Israel does not exist — and there are many signs that even the tyrant Khamenei does not exist either,” Netanyahu said.
Trump told NBC News he also believes Khamenei is among the dead.
“We feel that that is a correct story,” he said.
“The people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone.”
The attack follows months of escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, as Trump has sought to secure a deal that would deny it from securing a nuclear weapon.
Amid the talks, Trump expanded the United States’ military presence in the Middle East and threatened military action if a deal was not made.
The strikes come after the United States and Iran held indirect negotiations in Geneva on Thursday. Officials from mediator Oman and Iran left the talks stating there were signs of progress and plans for future negotiations.
