12 + Hours in on the Israeli/American Attacks on Iran…..Update

But Iranian officials dismissed such talk. A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, told ABC News that both Ayatollah Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were “safe and sound.”

Several Israeli officials, who said they were not authorized to speak publicly, insisted that the Iranian leader was dead, but did not immediately provide evidence.

The Israeli military said the attacks had killed Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the most powerful force in Iran; the defense minister, Gen. Aziz Nasrizadeh; and Ali Shamkhani, former head of the Iranian navy and a close adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei. But the announcement by Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, an Israeli military spokesman, made no mention of Ayatollah Khamenei.

The attack on Iran’s leadership was part of a massive air assault by the United States and Israel that threatened a broader regional conflict, with Mr. Trump vowing to devastate the country’s military, eliminate its nuclear program and enable a change in its government.

In retaliation, Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel, where the authorities reported only minor injuries. Several Gulf nations that host U.S. military bases said they had intercepted Iranian missiles in their airspace, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where falling debris killed at least one person, according to its government.

The Iranian response was broader than during the 12-day war last June when Israel and the United States bombed Iran, and Iran fired missiles only at Israel and a U.S. base in Qatar. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said Saturday that there had been “blatant and cowardly Iranian attacks” on its capital Riyadh and in the country’s oil-rich eastern province. Bahrain’s emergency services responded to a blast at a residential tower in the capital Manama.

The fighting effectively shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, according to shipping companies and Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, a development that was sure to send oil prices upward. The U.S. Maritime Administration advised vessels to avoid the strait, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that the passage was unsafe for commercial traffic, Tasnim reported.

Waves of large explosions shook the Iranian capital, Tehran, and witnesses described chaos in the streets as people rushed to seek shelter, find loved ones or flee the city.

Israel’s military said it had, in part, targeted a gathering of senior Iranian officials in the opening strikes. Satellite imagery showed a plume of smoke and extensive damage at the high-security compound of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.

Mr. Trump had threatened an attack for weeks, saying earlier that he was considering limited strikes to compel Iran to accept U.S. terms for a deal restricting its nuclear program. Instead, he launched a much more ambitious, potentially more perilous venture.

The president said in a video posted to Truth Social on Saturday that the United States would “raze their missile industry to the ground,” “annihilate their navy” and enable regime change.

Mr. Trump urged Iranians to rise up against their authoritarian government. “When we are finished, take over your government,” he said. “It will be yours to take.”

U.S. strikes were carried out by attack planes from bases and aircraft carriers around the Middle East. Israel’s military said it had struck about 500 targets.

Analysts warned that the fighting could devolve into a protracted war with no clear exit. Many world leaders urged restraint, although Canada and Australia backed the American action.

Here’s what else to know:

• Chaos in Tehran: Ali Zeinalipoor, a Tehran resident, described watching a massive plume of smoke billowing from nearby Pasteur Street. “I rushed to school to get my daughter from middle school, the girls were hiding under the stairs and crying,” he said. Read more ›

• The crisis: Mr. Trump vowed in early January to aid antigovernment demonstrators there. The Iranian government quelled those protests in a bloody crackdown that killed thousands, according to rights groups. Mr. Trump has more recently focused on Iran’s nuclear program. American and Iranian officials held a last-ditch round of mediated talks on Thursday over the program that ended without a breakthrough.

• Reports of casualties in Iran: Iranian state media reported that one strike killed dozens of children at a girl’s elementary school in the southern town of Minab. Iran’s Red Crescent and several state news outlets said more than 60 people were killed at Shajarah Tayyebeh school, near a naval base. Iran’s state news broadcaster, IRIB, gave a toll of 85 dead and 93 injured. Times reporters are working to confirm those details.

• Last year’s strikes: The United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities last June during a 12-day-war between Israel and Iran. While Mr. Trump said repeatedly that the Iranian nuclear program had been “obliterated” by those strikes, it later emerged that the effort had been degraded, not destroyed.

• Read more ›

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ISW….Iran Update Special Report: US and Israeli Strikes, February 28, 2026

1. The United States and Israel have launched a strike campaign into Iran in order to topple the Islamic Republic, among other objectives. US President Donald Trump announced the launch of combat operations in a video statement and called on the Iranian people to rise up against their regime.
2. Israel has launched decapitation strikes against Iranian leaders. Israeli officials told Axios that Israel is targeting the “entire Iranian leadership,” including current and former officials. Israel conducted numerous airstrikes targeting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to Israeli and US officials speaking to Axios. Khamenei’s condition remains unclear at the time of this writing. Israeli officials assess that the IDF killed Defense Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Major General Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Brigadier General Aziz Nasir Zadeh, and the Iranian “intelligence chief.”
3. Israel and the United States have also attacked Iranian military targets. Some of these attacks are probably meant to disrupt Iran’s ability to immediately retaliate. The IDF announced that it has targeted “hundreds of military targets,” including missile launchers, in western Iran. The IDF previously attacked Iranian missile launchers at the outset of the June 2025 Israel-Iran war to disrupt Iran’s ability to retaliate.
4. There are unconfirmed reports of strikes on Iranian naval assets. An Israeli OSINT account reported strikes on the IRGC Navy frigate Jamaran. There are also unverified reports of strikes on the IRGC Navy Imam Ali Navy Base in Chabahar, Sistan and Balochistan Province.
5. Iran has responded immediately to the US and Israeli strikes. Iran has launched multiple barrages at Israel in recent hours. An Israeli media correspondent reported that Iran had launched around 35 missiles at Israel as of 5:42 AM ET. Iran has also attacked numerous US bases across the region. Iran has attacked US bases in Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

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What we know — and still don’t — about the Iran strikes

The U.S. and Israel’s joint military operation against Iran could lead to extraordinary power shifts in the Middle East, especially if the strikes help force Tehran’s Islamist regime from power. The campaign could also spur chaos in a region that has known far too little stability.

The strikes are the second time since President Donald Trump returned to office that Israel and the United States have conducted military operations on Iranian soil. Already, Tehran has responded with fury. Iran launched missiles at U.S. bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar and is likely to conduct further attacks if U.S. and Israeli strikes continue….

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Will the Middle East descend into broader regional conflict?

Iran’s threatened retaliation has already led to strikes against military bases in nearby countries. Iran can also attack via its proxy militias in the region, including ones in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and to a lesser extent Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis of Yemen also could come to Tehran’s aid.

An aggressive response from the proxies, which comprise Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance, would only be more likely if Israeli and U.S. strikes succeeded in killing Khamenei. Iran also warned neighboring countries that it was closing access to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint in global shipping before the strike.

Iran’s strikes have already caused some Arab countries to put aside differences, at least for now. Saudi Arabian and Emirati leadership spoke on the phone after Iran’s strikes on the Emirates, despite the brewing tensions between the two Gulf countries over the war in Sudan and other issues.

Several Arab countries have stressed that they played no role in the U.S.-Israeli strike. It’s an open question if more Iranian strikes on their soil could lead these states to hit back….

More…

image….Politico