WASHINGTON — Israel and the United States have launched “major combat operations” on Iran today, US President Donald Trump announced in a media post, setting off a set of retaliatory strikes across the region.
“The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “We’re going to destroy their missiles and [raze] their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their Navy.”
“It has always been the policy of the United States in particular, my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon,” he said separately. “I’ll say it again. They can never have a nuclear weapon.”
The attacks, apparently dubbed “Operation Epic Fury” by the US, appears to be a full-out regime change effort by the US and Israel, based on Trump’s comments and early reports of strikes targeting political and military leadership, including the commander of the Revolutionary Guard and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere,” Trump said. “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
Israel Defense Forces have since posted videos of “Operation Roaring Lion” online of strikes inside Iran, including against spots they said were missile launchers, and reports of explosions across the region aimed at US and Israeli targets.
Reports in the region say that Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have all taken retaliatory fire from Iran. The New York Times reported that part of US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain was hit by a missile attack.
The latest wave of strikes comes after months of on-again, off-again civilian protests inside Iran, along with an unfulfilled January vow by Trump that he would back protestors and send support. Instead, the US spent the intervening weeks, building up its force posture in the region that now includes the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, as well as additional fighter jets and support aircraft.
And as that firepower inside the US Central Command area of responsibility grew, so did the Trump administration’s calls for the Iranian regime to end all nuclear enrichment efforts or face an attack.
“I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people, because they are great and wonderful, and something like this should never have happened to them,” Trump wrote in a social media post Monday. His comments came ahead of plans for US and Iranian officials to sit down for negotiations in Geneva on Thursday which did not produce a fruitful outcome.
This latest rounds of attacks on Iran follows the June 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer during which 125 US aircraft, a guided missile submarine and approximately 75 precision guided weapons were used to target three Iranian nuclear sites. At the time, Trump asserted that those airstrikes completely “obliterated” the country’s nuclear program. While the US has not backed off that claim, it has since said (without offering up evidence) that Tehran is developing a long-range missile that can strike the US.
“They rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore,” Trump said in his latest post. “Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach the American homeland.
“We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail to the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police.,” he added. “I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or, in the alternative, face certain death. So lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.”
This is a developing story and may be updated.