President Trump announced on Saturday that the United States had launched a major attack on Iran, vowing to devastate the country’s military, eliminate its nuclear program and bring about a change in its government.
Massive explosions resounded in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where residents reported seeing smoke rising from the district that includes the presidential palace and the National Security Council.
The region was broadly on edge over the potential scope of retaliation from the attack, jointly coordinated with Israel. Iran fired missiles at Israel, prompting huge booms overhead as Israeli air defenses sought to intercept them. Air raid sirens blared in Bahrain where there are American bases, while the U.S. embassies in Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates directed all staff to shelter-in-place and recommended that all Americans in those countries do the same.
The American-led campaign’s scope went well beyond the attack against Iran’s nuclear program last year that Mr. Trump oversaw. This time, Mr. Trump vowed “to raze their missile industry to the ground” and “annihilate their navy,” arguing that Iran had refused to reach a deal with the United States that would have averted war.
He then called on Iranians to overthrow their government when the U.S. military assault came to an end. “It will be yours to take,” he said. “This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
Dozens of U.S. strikes are being carried out by attack planes from bases and aircraft carriers around the Middle East, one U.S. officials said. The focus of the American strikes for the moment is military targets in Iran, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters.
The attacks began on Saturday morning, the first day of the Iranian workweek, as millions of people were at work and school. Explosions were also heard in other cities across Iran, including Isfahan and Karaj, according to the semiofficial news agency, Fars.
The attack followed weeks of rising tensions as Mr. Trump repeatedly threatened to strike Iran unless the country’s leadership agreed to U.S. demands. American and Iranian officials held a last-ditch round of mediated talks on Thursday over Tehran’s nuclear program. The talks ended without a breakthrough, apparently paving the way for the attack.
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.
The crisis: The latest tensions with Iran began after 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 since both threatened to attack Iran and sought to leverage the unrest in the country to reach a diplomatic solution.
Trump’s video: Mr. Trump, standing behind a lectern and wearing a white USA hat, said in an eight-minute video that the U.S. objective was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” He added that “its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.” Read more ›
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 initially said the Iranian nuclear program had been “obliterated” by those American strikes, it later emerged that the effort had been degraded, not decisively destroyed. Read more ›
Israel readies for retaliation: Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, announced his country’s strikes in a statement, adding that the country would be under a state of emergency. Anticipating potential Iranian retaliation, the Israeli government announced that schools, workplaces, and the country’s international airspace would close, effective immediately.
This insane man needs to be impeached and removed.
