In the early hours of Saturday, a coordinated military operation by the United States and Israel targeted significant military and nuclear sites within Iran.
The strikes aimed at what U.S. officials described as high-priority targets, which included command and control facilities of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), naval resources, and underground locations suspected of being part of Iran’s nuclear program.
Officials reported that the operation also targeted Iranian air defense systems, missile and drone launch facilities, as well as military airfields.
According to a senior Israeli official speaking to Fox News, Israeli forces specifically targeted sites associated with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
President Donald Trump announced on Saturday afternoon that Khamenei was among those killed in the strike. A senior Israeli official confirmed to Fox News that over 40 high-ranking figures in Iran’s security and regime infrastructure were also casualties of the attack.
Key military and nuclear-linked sites were targeted inside the country in coordinated, sweeping U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran in the predawn hours of Saturday. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
He also claimed that the IRGC is seeking immunity from the U.S.
The leaders had all been meeting at a compound in Tehran Saturday morning.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the strikes, President Donald Trump confirmed. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The strikes were moved up due to the “target of opportunity,” multiple sources told Fox News, which is why the strikes happened in the daytime in Iran, keeping the element of surprise.
“There was a deliberate decision to accelerate the timeline,” one source said.
The campaign, which Trump described overnight from Mar-a-Lago as the beginning of “major combat operations” in the region, encompasses multi-geographic targets in an effort to overwhelm Iran’s defensive capabilities.
People watch as smoke rises on the skyline after an explosion in Tehran Saturday. (AP Photo)
The strikes could also continue for days.
Trump said the campaign aimed to devastate Iran’s military and dismantle its nuclear program, and he urged the Iranian people to “take over” their government.
Tomahawk cruise missiles were used in the first strikes of the operation, called Operation Epic Fury, along with one-way attack drones that were used for the first time, according to a U.S. official.
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