{"id":496267,"date":"2026-02-28T21:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/496267\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T21:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:04:17","slug":"u-s-and-israel-launch-major-attacks-in-iran-that-israel-claims-killed-supreme-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/496267\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. and Israel launch major attacks in Iran that Israel claims killed supreme leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. and Israel on Saturday launched sweeping attacks on Iran<\/a> in an operation that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, according to multiple media reports citing Israeli officials. Iran denied the reports.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump said he believed reports that Iran\u2019s supreme leader was killed by airstrikes from U.S.-Israel attacks on Saturday are \u201ccorrect,\u201d contradicting Iran\u2019s claim that Ayatollah Khamenei is still alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel that that is a correct story,\u201d Trump told NBC News<\/a>. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier also said in a televised address that \u201csigns are growing\u201d that Iran\u2019s supreme leader was killed, according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told MS Now that both Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Khamenei are \u201csafe and sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told MS Now that both Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are \u201csafe and sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Iran responded by firing retaliatory missile strikes on Israel and against U.S. bases in the Middle East region.<\/p>\n

More than 200 people in Iran have been killed by Israel-U.S. strikes, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, and Iran\u2019s state-run IRNA news agency reported that at least 57 students from a girls\u2019 school in southern Iran were killed. U.S. Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said in a statement officials are looking into \u201creports concerning civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Central Command said the U.S. has so far fended off \u201chundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks,\u201d and that there are no reports of casualties or combat-related injuries among U.S. forces, with minimal damage to U.S. installations.<\/p>\n

Trump announced \u201cmajor combat operations\u201d in Iran in a Truth Social post early on Saturday, which he said was aimed at stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and protecting American personnel and interests abroad and at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,\u201d Trump declared from behind a podium dressed in a navy suit and wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with \u201cUSA\u201d on it.<\/p>\n

Israel announced it was also participating in the military offensive, and The Associated Press reported that Israel had launched a daylight attack on Tehran, Iran\u2019s capital, on Saturday. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said <\/a>the joint attack with the U.S. was aimed at ending \u201cthe threat of the Iranian ayatollah\u2019s regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump acknowledged there may be American casualties as a result of the U.S. military intervention labeled \u201cOperation Epic Fury,\u201d but said the mission was necessary to protect America and its allies in the future.<\/p>\n

Trump acknowledged there may be American casualties as a result of the U.S. military intervention labeled \u201cOperation Epic Fury,\u201d but said the mission was necessary to protect America and its allies in the future.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war,\u201d Trump stated. \u201cWe\u2019re doing this not for now. We\u2019re doing this for the future and it is a noble mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump told the Washington Free Beacon<\/a> later on Saturday that he believed the operation was \u201cgoing very well\u201d and that he felt \u201cfine\u201d following the strikes against Iran.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, denounced <\/a>the attack, saying, \u201cNetanyahu and Trump\u2019s war on Iran is wholly unprovoked, illegal, and illegitimate. Trump has turned \u2018America First\u2019 into \u2018Israel First\u2019\u2014which always means \u2018America Last\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president \u201cmonitored the situation overnight\u201d at Mar-a-Lago and had spoken with Netanyahu. \u201cThe President and his national security team will continue to closely monitor the situation throughout the day,\u201d she said <\/a>in a statement.<\/p>\n

In an early morning interview with The Washington Post <\/a>after announcing the strikes, Trump said he wanted \u201cfreedom\u201d for the Iranian people.<\/p>\n

This is the eighth military intervention of Trump\u2019s second term in office and runs counter to his campaign promise to end costly foreign wars<\/a>. The president set broad goals in his video address and called for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Iranian military forces to lay down their arms, making clear this was not a limited U.S. attack. Indeed, he called it \u201cmassive\u201d in the video statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon\u2026this regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

The airstrikes began at the start of Iran\u2019s workweek. The country\u2019s foreign ministry claimed the U.S. and Israel had targeted \u201cdefensive and civilian facilities\u201d and that the offensive occurred while Iran was \u201cengaged in a diplomatic process\u201d with the United States. <\/p>\n

Strikes were reported in Dubai and Kuwait. Officials from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, where the U.S. has military bases, said separately that missiles were intercepted in their airspace.<\/p>\n

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Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen announced that they would resume strikes on shipping in the Red Sea, which drove up shipping prices<\/a> in the past.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Tasnim News Agency reported that the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which roughly 20% of the world\u2019s oil supply passes, has closed amid strikes. Only 21 miles wide at one point, the strait\u2019s closure, or the limiting of oil tankers passing through it, could increase oil prices globally. <\/p>\n

The United Nations Security Council will meet at 4 p.m. ET to discuss the developing situation in Iran and the Middle East, according to an advisory.<\/p>\n

Trump pointed to the on-again-off-again nature of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear operations, and said the government had \u201crejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions.\u201d He stated the country had attempted to rebuild its nuclear industry following U.S. attacks on its nuclear facilities<\/a> in Operation Midnight Hammer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t take it anymore,\u201d Trump said, warning that Iran was continuing to build long-range missiles that could not only threaten U.S. allies in Europe but \u201ccould soon reach\u201d U.S. shores.<\/p>\n

\tRecommended<\/p>\n

The attack caught diplomats who had been involved in negotiations over the past several weeks off guard. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am dismayed,\u201d Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi said Saturday, after just a day earlier expressing optimism that the talks he had mediated between the U.S. and Iran had made significant progress. \u201cActive and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined. Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this. And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the United States not to get sucked in further. This is not your war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump called on the Iranian people to take action, describing the U.S. military offensive as \u201ctheir moment for action\u201d and \u201cprobably your only chance to act for generations.\u201d The operation comes in the wake of a brutal crackdown by the Iranian regime <\/a>on civilians after nationwide protests against the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cBombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,\u201d Trump declared.<\/p>\n

Democrats condemned Trump\u2019s unilateral decision to attack Iran without consulting the American public, lawmakers or seeking congressional authorization. \u201cThe president owes the country clear answers: What is the objective? What is the strategy to prevent escalation? And how does this make Americans safer?\u201d Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Saturday, noting that Trump himself acknowledged that \u201cAmerican heroes may be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat alone should have demanded the highest level of scrutiny, deliberation, and accountability, yet the president moved forward without seeking congressional authorization,\u201d Warner said. \u201cThe Constitution is clear: the decision to take this nation to war rests with Congress, and launching large-scale military operations \u2013 particularly in the absence of an imminent threat to the United States \u2013 raises serious legal and constitutional concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Warner was among members of the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leaders from both parties who were contacted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the hours before the strikes, according to multiple sources familiar with the calls. Rubio was unable to reach at least one of the leaders who did not answer the call, but he spoke to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, R-Ark., and Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking member on that panel.<\/p>\n

Rubio also consulted the Gang of Eight during an hour-long briefing on Tuesday, one U.S. official said.<\/p>\n

Still, key congressional members were outraged by the action, including Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., sponsor of a War Powers Resolution that had been set for a vote this week aimed at reigning in the administration\u2019s ability to undertake such actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East?\u201d Kaine said in a statement Saturday morning. \u201cIs he too mentally incapacitated to realize that we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran that was keeping its nuclear program in check, until he ripped it up during his first term?\u201c<\/p>\n

Mounting tensions<\/p>\n

Trump and Khamenei, Iran\u2019s supreme leader, had each threatened the other with military action in recent weeks. Trump had called for regime change<\/a> and signaled plans for a second direct attack on the Islamic Republic to be carried out by what the president promised would be a \u201cmassive armada<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The second offensive in eight months comes after Trump repeatedly and publicly urged Iran to accept his terms for a nuclear weapons agreement<\/a> and threatened retaliation if it did not. At the first meeting of his new \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d Trump warned \u201cbad things will happen\u201d<\/a> if Iran did not agree to a nuclear program deal.<\/p>\n

In the first strikes, Trump directed U.S. forces\u00a0to bomb three nuclear sites in Iran<\/a> in June 2025. A U.S. intelligence report said<\/a> Iran\u2019s nuclear program was set back only a few months \u2014 not \u201ccompletely and fully obliterated\u201d as Trump had claimed.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government issued a\u00a0security alert<\/a> on Jan. 12, directing Americans to leave Iran by land immediately on the heels of the government\u2019s bloody crackdown on demonstrators<\/a> amid a worsening economic crisis. Several foreign embassies in Tehran, including the British embassy, have since temporarily closed or reduced operations<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This is the Trump administration\u2019s second major foreign intervention. Earlier this year, U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and his wife, Cilia Flores, in an operation that killed <\/a>nearly 40 people. The U.S. has also struck dozens of boats it accused of illegal narco-trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing 144 people, according to a MS NOW tally based on U.S. government figures.<\/p>\n

Ian Sherwood contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tClarissa-Jan Lim<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tClarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"David\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Rohde\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tErum Salam<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tErum Salam is breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian and is a graduate of Texas A&M University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Follow her on X, Bluesky and Instagram.\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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