US and Israel launch strikes on Iran: what we know so far
Joint operation prompts Tehran to retaliate with missile attacks on bases across Middle East
The US and Israel have launched a joint military operation against Iran, prompting Tehran to fire retaliatory strikes against Israeli and US bases across the Middle East.
Explosions rocked the Iranian capital, Tehran, with satellite imagery showing extensive damage at the secure compound of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, though his whereabouts remained unclear. Dozens of pupils were reportedly killed in a strike on a primary school in the south-east.
Israel said its strikes targeted the Iranian regime’s leadership and military commanders, including Khamenei and the president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Iranian state media, citing Iran’s senior officials, reported that Khamenei was not in Tehran and was taken to a secure location, while Pezeshkian was safe.
Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister who has been leading the nuclear talks for the Iranian delegation, promised that Iran’s army would “teach aggressors the lesson they deserve”.
Further explosions were reported in Gulf countries, including the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, all of which host US military bases. One person was killed by shrapnel from an Iranian missile in Abu Dhabi, UAE officials said.
The US president, Donald Trump, described the US military campaign as “massive and ongoing” as he called on the people of Iran to “take over your government”. In a speech posted on Truth Social, he said the US would “raze their [Iran’s] missile industry to the ground” and claimed Tehran had refused to reach a deal with the US that would have averted war.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the US-Israeli attack could “create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands”.
World leaders urged all sides to de-escalate and return to the negotiating table. The UK, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s retaliatory strikes on neighbouring countries, but the statement stopped short of complete support for the US-Israeli attacks.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said British planes were “in the sky today” in the Middle East “as part of coordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies”.