U.S. and Israel launch attack on Iran as Trump calls for regime change
Smoke rises over Tehran on Saturday. (AP)
Trump urges Iranians to ‘take over your government’ following offensive
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said the assault would last “as long as needed.”
The Pentagon has named this “Operation Epic Fury,”
The president promised to destroy Tehran’s missile program and urged Iranians to take over the government. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said the assault would last “as long as needed.”
The U.S. military has launched “major combat operations in Iran,” President Donald Trump said Saturday, vowing to eliminate Tehran’s missiles and nuclear program, and fuel a change in government. “I want a safe nation, and that’s what we’re going to have,” Trump told The Washington Post soon after. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a joint attack with the U.S. that would last “as long as needed,” unleashing a conflict that threatens to engulf the region. As explosions rang out in Tehran and other cities, Iran said it retaliated against Israel with missiles and drones. The U.S. recently assembled an immense strike force in the region while pressing Iran to dismantle its nuclear operations.
Lior Soroka
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and “other senior Iranian officials were targets” in Saturday’s strikes on Iran, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
British military did not participate in attacks, U.K. says
Greg Miller
The British military did not participate in the strikes on Iran, according to information provided by U.K. officials that did not address whether the United States used or had permission to use U.K. bases including Diego Garcia, which is home to a base for U.S. bomber aircraft.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer summoned senior national security officials to a meeting Saturday morning to discuss the strikes, officials said. British officials revealed that the country’s military had moved additional assets to its installations in the region in recent weeks for “defensive purposes,” including radar systems, counter-drone systems, F-35 fighter jets and ground-based air-defense systems.
In a statement, the British government expressed support for the objectives of the U.S. and Israeli campaign but stopped short of endorsing the strikes themselves.
“Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, and that is why we have continually supported efforts to reach a negotiated solution,” a British official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “We do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict.”
The government said it was working to ensure the safety of U.K. nationals in the Middle East and that the British military has “a range of defensive capabilities in the region, which we have recently bolstered. We stand ready to protect our interests.”
Alarms sound across the gulf as Iran threatens U.S. bases
Mohamad El Chamaa, Mustafa Salim, Heba Farouk Mahfouz and Suzan Haidamous
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Iraqi counterpart that all American bases in the region are under threat of Iranian attacks, a statement by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry read.
Several Persian Gulf countries housing U.S. forces have reported attacks, with the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar saying they were able to intercept Iranian rocket fire. The UAE Ministry of Defense said shrapnel fell on a residential area in Abu Dhabi, which resulted in some damage and one death. Earlier, a large explosion was seen in Bahrain as Iran targeted a service center belonging to the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
A statement by the Qatari Defense Ministry noted that several strikes on its territory were “successfully countered.” Qatar is home to the al-Udeid Air Base, which houses a U.S. Air Force unit and came under Iranian fire during last June’s 12-day war.
Gulf diplomats previously warned the U.S. that a war with Iran would endanger American interests in the region. Saudi Arabia, which in recent years has warmed ties with its longtime arch foe Iran, condemned the attacks. The Qatari Foreign Ministry also condemned the attacks and said it had a right to respond, but called for de-escalation and for a return to dialogue.
Anthony Faiola
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled eldest son of the last shah of Iran who has emerged as the most prominent opposition leader following street protests last month, called on Iranians to pour again into the streets at the “appropriate time” to precipitate a “final victory” over the government’s “apparatus of repression.”
Pahlavi has repeatedly called on President Donald Trump to intervene in Iran and has reportedly met in private with U.S. officials, though Trump has publicly been noncommittal about his support for Pahlavi. “He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump told Reuters last month.
Tara Copp and Alex Horton
The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet at Naval Support Activity in Bahrain was hit by a missile attack, the country’s official communications center said Saturday. Staffing at the base had been reduced in recent days in case of retaliatory strikes, Fox News had previously reported, citing U.S. officials.
Natalie Allison
President Donald Trump shared an article about Iran seeking to interfere in U.S. elections on his Truth Social account a couple of hours after U.S. strikes began in Iran early Saturday.
“Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States,” the post read, with a link to a piece from Just the News, a conservative website from which Trump frequently shares articles. Shortly after, the president posted another article from the site, albeit unrelated to Iran; it was about the Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutor Fani T. Willis.
Tara Copp
Iran is launching retaliatory strikes against U.S. bases in the region, a U.S. official said. No further details were immediately available on which installations were being targeted. The U.S. has maintained about 30,000 forces in the Middle East, not including the recent surge of Air Force and Navy assets.
More than a dozen U.S. warships are supporting the operation
Tara Copp
More than a dozen U.S. warships are in the region to support military operations, a Navy official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media. As of Friday, two U.S. destroyers, the USS Michael Murphy and USS Mitscher, and two littoral combat ships, the USS Canberra and USS Santa Barbara, were near the Strait of Hormuz.
The Navy has also amassed a large presence of firepower in the Arabian Sea, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and seven destroyers: The USS Frank E. Petersen, Jr., the USS Spruance, USS Delbert Black, USS John Finn, USS McFaul, USS Milius and USS Pinckney. The littoral combat ship the USS Tulsa is also in the Arabian Sea, the Navy official said. The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is in the region after sailing from the Caribbean to support the operation, the official said.
The Pentagon has named this “Operation Epic Fury,” a U.S. official said.
Trump urges Iranians to ‘take over your government’ following offensive
Anthony Faiola
President Donald Trump issued a direct call to the Iranian people to “take over your government” in the aftermath of the attack on Iran, indicating that regime change is a U.S. goal.
The strategy harkened to a legacy of American hawks who have sought to bring down hostile foreign governments, but came with the pointed suggestion that the Iranian people should rise up to deal the final blow to its leaders.
That stands in contrast to past U.S. interventions such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in which American-led ground forces conducted a land invasion to drive Saddam Hussein from power.
“Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,” Trump said. “This will be probably your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. … Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond.”
The sweeping U.S. and Israeli air strikes come weeks after a crackdown on protestors in Iran left some Iranians feeling betrayed after Trump failed to take military action following his promising to “come to the rescue” in the event the government killed peaceful protestors.
The Iranian crackdown on protests left more than 7,000 people dead, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based advocacy organization for rights in Iran.
Tara Copp
Like the major previous operations in Iran and Venezuela, the U.S. attack is a complex, multi-domain effort that involves the Space Force, Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Both President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are expected to provide updates on the operation later Saturday, the U.S. official said.
In a brief phone call with The Washington Post just after 4 a.m. Saturday, President Donald Trump said his main concern is “freedom” for the Iranian people, and that the U.S. is working to make Iran a place that’s “safe.”
“All I want is freedom for the people,” Trump told The Post, asked about what he hoped his legacy would be as a result of the operation. “I want a safe nation, and that’s what we’re going to have.”
